British SAS Sniper Killed Three Members Of ISIS Knife-Wielding Killer Squad As They Prepare To Carry Out Beheadings

A British sniper working with an SAS unit within the borders of Syria shot dead an Islamic State (Isis) death squad last month as they carried out beheadings in a village, according to anonymous military sources.

 

After speaking with a source identified as a member of Britain's Special Forces, The Daily Star reported that an SAS unit shot dead IS executioners in something akin to a scene from an action film. As executioners from the jihadist group prepared to kill a man and young boy in a northern Syrian village near the border with Turkey, the British sniper reportedly killed a knife-wielding man with a single head-shot from 1,000 meters as he was poised to behead the two. The sniper then killed three other death squad executioners.

 

The SAS unit was in the area carrying out covert patrols. A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson said they could not confirm or deny the actions of the SAS. More than 250 special forces soldiers and support staff have been working in Iraq.

 

The Daily Star story contains no comment from the MoD or British Army beyond the single anonymous source. The source says that the army marksman used a .50 calibre sniper rifle fitted with a silencer to make the kills and provides in-depth detail of the events. The men about to be executed were said to be part of the Muslim Shia sect, considered heretical by IS.

 

British Special Forces have been carrying out missions inside Syria for the better part of a year. On 9 August the Mail on Sunday reported that SAS soldiers joined US Special Forces in east Syria early this year to assist a mission to assassinate Abu Sayyaf, a senior IS commander.

 

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon came under criticism in late July after it was revealed that British RAF pilots were carrying out bombing missions in Syrian territory. The criticism arose because the British military has not been authorised by parliament to carry out military operations in the country. These new revelations about British Special Forces demonstrate that the UK's military have been working in Syria for some time already.

 

"We've always been clear that we would have to go back to parliament for any further military missions," said an MoD spokesperson. They said that the missions flown by RAF pilots did not apply because those pilots were embedded with coalition forces.

 

In August 2013, the House of Commons voted against military action attacking Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces after Prime Minister David Cameron backed air strikes on the regime. The government has not received explicit authorisation from parliament to carry out missions in Syria. Without a large British army force on the ground, the UK has been training and equipping moderate opposition groups to fight Assad's forces. Source; Yahoo! News