A Canadian soldier in Iraq has killed an ISIS militant from more than 2 miles away, shattering the world record for a confirmed sniper kill in military history, according to USA Today and other media reports.
The soldier, who remains anonymous, is a gun specialist from the elite Joint Task Force 2, and he achieved the feat with a shot from a high-rise during an operation in the last 30 days, according to USA Today and Toronto's Globe and Mail.
The shot, fired from a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle, traveled 3,540 meters — it took about 10 seconds for it to reach its target, according to the Globe and Mail. That's more than 1,000 meters — or more than half a mile — farther than the previous world record of 2,475 meters, according to The Globe and Mail.
"The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [Islamic State] attack on Iraqi security forces," according to a military source who spoke to 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 way, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening."
The Globe and Mail reported that the kill was independently verified by video camera and other data.
The previous record, as recorded in the Guinness World Records, was held by British sniper Craig Harrison, of the United Kingdom's Household Cavalry. Harrison killed two Taliban insurgents from a distance of 2,474 meters, or one and a half miles, in November 2009 in Afghanistan. In that case, it took the 8.59 mm rounds almost three seconds to hit their targets. A third shot took out the insurgents' machine gun.
