Canadian Sniper Shattered The World Record, Killing ISIS Fighter From Over 2 Miles Away.

#1

The bullet traveled 3,450 meters—over two miles—and took less than 10 seconds to reach its target: a fighter for the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq.

Those are the details of the world record-breaking shot fired by a Canadian sniper, who has eclipsed the previous longest-confirmed kill by almost 1,000 meters.

A member of Canada’s Joint Task Force 2—part of the U.S.-led coalition that is taking the fight to ISIS in Iraq—made the kill during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq, sources told The Globe and Mail. The identity of the sniper and his observer was kept anonymous for operational security reasons.

#2

The prior record was held by a British sniper, Craig Harrison, who in 2009 shot a Taliban gunner from 2,475 meters, or about a mile and a half, away during an operation in Afghanistan.

#3

According to Newsweek, Canada has been involved in the war against ISIS since 2014, with the new government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau government expanding the number of Canadian special forces involved in training missions with Kurdish Peshmerga forces from 69 to 207.

U.S. Sergeant Bryan Kremer has the longest confirmed sniper kill shot by a U.S. soldier, the Globe and Mail reported. He killed an Iraqi insurgent from 2,300 meters in 2004.

#4

The record-breaking sniper used a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle—the standard long-range sniper of the Canadian military—and fired the shot from a high-rise building in an undisclosed location. Firing from such a distance, the shooter would have had to account for wind; the round dropping as it was fired from a higher location and even the curvature of the earth.

#5

It took just under ten seconds for the bullet to hit the target and was fired from an elevated position.

“The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [ISIS] attack on Iraqi sources,” a military source told The Globe and Mail . “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 away, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening.”

#6

“Canada has a world-class sniper system,” the source told the paper. “It is not just a sniper. They work in pairs. … This is a skill set that only a very few people have.”

They also have to account for wind speed and the increasing downward motion of the bullet as it loses speed over such a long distance.

“You have to adjust for him firing from a higher location downward and as the round drops you have to account for that,” the source told the paper. “And from that distance you actually have to account for the curvature of the Earth.”

#7

The shot has been verified by a video camera and a separate military source was adamant the distance was not an estimate.

"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," the military source said.

#8

In response to Canadian involvement, ISIS has called for attacks in Canada, and several fighters claiming allegiance to the group have gone on shooting sprees in the country. In October 2014, Martin Couture-Rouleau—who was known as Ahmad the Converted—drove a car into two Canadian soldiers near a Quebec mall, killing one. The attacker had had his passport revoked months earlier after showing sympathies for ISIS and expressing a desire to travel to Iraq.

Two days after the attack, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a Canadian-Libyan, shot and killed a Canadian soldier at the National War Memorial before breaking into the parliament buildings, where he was shot dead. Canada's then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that the attacker had been motivated by Canada’s participation in the war against ISIS.

#9

The world record sniper shot means that three of the top five longest confirmed kills were carried out by Canadian snipers. The top five are:

No matter how you look at it, this is an amazing feat that will be hard to top!