Last week a British soldier from the elite Special Air Service unit used an Israeli made rifle to decapitate an ISIS instructor who was showing new recruits how to behead prisoners.
“One minute he was standing there and the next his head had exploded.” reported an eyewitness to the Mirror.
The irony of the situation was not lost on the sniper who had to “aim to miss” the intended target in order to hit him, due to the special nature of the bullet fired.
The British sniper decapitated the ISIS executioner with a single bullet from a long range rifle, reportedly from a distance of 1,200 meters. The slug used in the execution is often referred to as a “wounding” bullet due to the “tumbling motion” it makes when fired. The resulting effect causes the bullet to cartwheel around inside a body once it hits its victim rather than flying straight through flesh. The effects are devastating. While the bullet is made internationally, the rifle that was used for the incredible shot was created and developed by Israel.
The Daily Express quoted an unnamed source who identified the sniper’s weapon as a Dan .338 equipped with a suppressor “which reduces the sound and eliminates any flash from the barrel”.
The Dan is an Israeli manufactured sniper rifle that weighs 5.9 kilograms and was created by renowned weapons designer Nehemia Sirkis and Israel Weapons Industries (IWI) in 2014. Israeli news site Mako reported that the gun is sold to police units and militaries around the world and is accurate up to 1,200 meters, a distance that was well used by the SAS sniper.
The SAS snipers were on a reconnaissance mission inside ISIS held territory in Syrian, when they received intelligence that a decapitation instructor was demonstrating to new recruits the techniques used in killing prisoners with knives, axes, and swords. One sniper targeted the instructor and took his head off.
“The Dan .338 sniper rifle is just the first in a series of advanced sniper rifles which we will be bringing to international markets. The ammunition used in the rifle is exotic and we estimate that the future of sniper rifle ammunition will be 3.38 caliber rounds,” said the Director of IWI Uri Amit.