Canadian Sniper Breaks World Record For Longest Shot, Kills ISIS Operative In Iraq

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A Canada special elite forces sniper broke the world record for the longest kill shot in the military history. According to the Globe and Mail, the sniper whose name was withheld, fired from a stunning distance of 3,450 meters. He is a part of the Joint Task Force 2 in the Iraq Civil War.

The target was an ISIS operative and by killing him, the sniper broke the previous record by almost 1000 meters. He stood on a high-rise during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq and fired. It took the bullet under 10 seconds to hit the target. The report said that the kill was independently verified by video and camera data. An unnamed military source was quoted saying: “Hard data on this. It isn’t an opinion. It isn’t an approximation. There is a second location with eyes on with all the right equipment to capture exactly what the shot was.”

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The weapon used was a McMillan Tac-50 and the ammunition was Hornady A-MAX.50 (.50 BMG). The windage and curvature of the earth were also factors that had to be considered. “The shot in question actually disrupted an ISIS attack on Iraqi security forces. Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening,” another military source said. He also emphasized that the operation fell within the boundaries of a government assist mission.

The names of the sniper and his partner were not revealed for reasons of operational security. They were reportedly sent to many dangerous locations to find and do away with insurgents. An expert in training Canadian Special Forces told the Globe and Mail that it would take an immense amount of concentration to fire from a higher location. In such situations, the ballistics of the bullet as well as the direction of wind would have to be accounted for.

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With this shot, the sniper has broken the previous record of 2,475 meter by Corporal of Horse, Craig Harrison of the United Kingdom who had shot a Taliban gunner in the Afghanistan War. Prior to Harrison, the title was held by another Canadian sniper, Rob Furlong, when he shot and killed an Afghan insurgent carrying an RPK machine gun during Operation Anaconda. Before Furlong, Canadian Master Corporal Arron Perry from the same battalion held the record for a few weeks after he killed an insurgent from a distance of 2,310 meters during the same operation. U.S. Serg. Bryan Kremer has the longest confirmed sniper kill shot by a U.S. soldier in 2004 in Iraq when he shot an insurgent standing at a distance of 2,300 meters.

Although the Canadian army is not a member of the Multi-National Force — Iraq which consists of military from the US, UK, Australia, Spain and Poland — the current government of Justin Trudeau has expanded the military commitment in Iraq, committing 207 Canadian Special Forces trainers in an assist, train and advise mission. Joint Task Force 2, to which the sniper belongs, is one of the special operations forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. Canadian commandos are not to be involved in direct combat.

Just a month ago, an unnamed British SAS sniper killed an ISIS fighter (who was himself a sniper) in Mosul, firing from 1.5 miles away. According to the Daily Mail, the shot took three full seconds to travel from the shooter to the target. The gun: a CheyTac M200.