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RIFLES Snipers kill 75 Taliban in 40 days

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  • RIFLES Snipers kill 75 Taliban in 40 days

    thanks to Craghopper for sharing this with me:

    Operating from a remote patrol base in Helmand, two British snipers were responsible for killing 75 Taliban fighters in just 40 days. In one remarkable feat of marksmanship, two insurgents were dispatched with a single bullet.


    Riflemen from 4RIFLES check the bodies of the two Taliban
    killed with the single bullet.

    The arrival at the newly-established Patrol Base Shamal Storrai (Pashto for “North Star”) in late August 2009 of Serjeant Tom Potter and Rifleman Mark Osmond marked the start of an astonishing episode in the history of British Army sniping.

    Within 40 days, the two marksmen from 4 Rifles [both men are Green Jackets], part of the Welsh Guards Battle group, had achieved 75 confirmed kills with 31 attributed to Potter and 44 to Osmond. Each kill was chalked up as a little stick man on the beam above the firing position in their camouflaged sangar beside the base gate – a stick man with no head denoting a target eliminated with a shot to the skull.


    Potter had notched up seven confirmed kills in Bara in 2007 and 2008 while Osmond’s total was 23. Both were members of the Green Jackets team that won the 2006 British Army Sniper Championships.

    On one occasion they killed eight Taliban in two hours, ‘I wasn’t comfortable with it at first,’ said Osmond, ‘you start wondering is it really necessary?’ But the reaction of the locals soon persuaded him. ‘We had people coming up to us afterwards, not scared to talk to us. They felt they were being protected’.

    read more about the 'double kill' and the Riflemans exploits here:

    www.telegraph.co.uk/rifles_snipers

    well done lads, good shooting.

    Swift and Bold...
    Last edited by RoyalGreenJacket; 15 March 2011, 08:28.
    RGJ

    ...Once a Rifleman - Always a Rifleman... Celer et Audax

    The Rifles

  • #2
    from a mile do you see taliban written on the uniform...how do you define a taliban...

    Comment


    • #3
      He's shooting back at you?


      Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by golden rivet View Post
        from a mile do you see taliban written on the uniform...how do you define a taliban...
        You could say the same from 10 feet its not like they wear a uniform. These guys have RoE that they apply regardless of distance.

        Comment


        • #5
          when you read this i kind of makes you wonder what the big fuss is over a warning shot being fired in Ireland.

          hard core.

          well done these Riflemen.
          RGJ

          ...Once a Rifleman - Always a Rifleman... Celer et Audax

          The Rifles

          Comment


          • #6
            Why are the snipers being named? Or is that not their real names?
            Everyone who's ever loved you was wrong.

            Comment


            • #7
              they are pseudonym names RJ - not their real names.
              RGJ

              ...Once a Rifleman - Always a Rifleman... Celer et Audax

              The Rifles

              Comment


              • #8
                I'm not discrediting what they did and fair play to them, it like shooting fish in a barrel, all they have to do is sit there and let them walk within range.
                Don't stand there GAWPING, like you've never seen the hand of God BEFORE!!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Out of curiosity RGJ. What is the current estimated strength of Taliban forces in Afghanistan?
                  To close with and kill the enemy in all weather conditions, night and day and over any terrain

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by HavocIRL View Post
                    Out of curiosity RGJ. What is the current estimated strength of Taliban forces in Afghanistan?
                    hi HavocIRL - because i am not and have not been on Ops there i haven't received the official brief from the MoD so i couldn't tell you what British Forces estimate to be honest.

                    Knocker might know if he can remember however he is in the Sin Bin.

                    what i do know though is that there seemed to be endless numbers of Taliban ready to fill the flip-flops of those our lads killed in any large scale engagement.

                    they literally have BCR's waiting in a holding area who come forward when a casevac takes place and they take over his weaponry etc to keep the fight going.

                    i'm guessing it's a few thousand - along with a few thousand potential Taliban who will fight ISAF as a last resort if pressured into it.
                    RGJ

                    ...Once a Rifleman - Always a Rifleman... Celer et Audax

                    The Rifles

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      On one occasion they killed eight Taliban in two hours, ‘I wasn’t comfortable with it at first,’ said Osmond, ‘you start wondering is it really necessary?’ But the reaction of the locals soon persuaded him. ‘We had people coming up to us afterwards, not scared to talk to us. They felt they were being protected’.
                      I'm wondering and the first part of the quote backs me up, but are these kills actually necessary? Might there be a better way to remove these guys from combat, without killing them. That is, aside from telling the story.
                      Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Victor View Post
                        I'm wondering and the first part of the quote backs me up, but are these kills actually necessary? Might there be a better way to remove these guys from combat, without killing them. That is, aside from telling the story.
                        no - just kill them. why waste time and resources and possible lives just to keep a Taliban alive? just kill them.
                        RGJ

                        ...Once a Rifleman - Always a Rifleman... Celer et Audax

                        The Rifles

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by RoyalGreenJacket View Post
                          no - just kill them. why waste time and resources and possible lives just to keep a Taliban alive? just kill them.
                          What exactly defines a Taliban? Someone indoctrinated by a fundamentalist Islamic ideology hell-bent on the destruction of the West, trained in Guerilla warfare by AQ in the North Western provinces of Pakistan? Or someone whose honest livelihood has been decimated by the upheaval of the local authority, the corruption of newly and illegitimately installed national government as a direct result of the Coalition's occupation; being forced by the need to support their family to go with the only game in town which is to pick up an AK and squirt it in the direction of the Coalition?

                          Must be hard to differentiate through a rifle scope.

                          If you kill the former, grand. But every time you kill the latter, you isolate the local populace further, as the unsupported family of the desperate man you just killed has now become an unfair further burden on that community.

                          10 years of "just kill them" doesn't seem to be working. Maybe it's time to change the tactics?

                          Good shooting otherwise

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            the local population walk up and down that road every day - only those deemed to be Taliban (for reasons beyond this forum) are killed.

                            they are killed for a reason, if you would like to go over there and try talking to Terry Taliban then crack on, i'll attend your repatriation.
                            RGJ

                            ...Once a Rifleman - Always a Rifleman... Celer et Audax

                            The Rifles

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              MOD: The posts that were not on the topic of this thread have been moved to a new thread "British involvement in Afghanistan"
                              "Fellow-soldiers of the Irish Republican Army, I have just received a communication from Commandant Pearse calling on us to surrender and you will agree with me that this is the hardest task we have been called upon to perform during this eventful week, but we came into this fight for Irish Independence in obedience to the commands of our higher officers and now in obedience to their wishes we must surrender. I know you would, like myself, prefer to be with our comrades who have already fallen in the fight - we, too, should rather die in this glorious struggle than submit to the enemy." Volunteer Captain Patrick Holahan to 58 of his men at North Brunswick Street, the last group of the Four Courts Garrison to surrender, Sunday 30 April 1916.

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