There was now next to no time before the small group on the hill would be overrun by the Iraqis and the SF team leader had no choice but to use the extreme danger code word to call in close air support (CAS). Although this message was immediately relayed via AWACS to the fighter aircraft on call, it would still take time for them to arrive.
This was where the sniper rifle came in handy. Using the Mk12 Special Purpose Rifle, designed for and issued to U.S. Special Forces, the sniper teams suppressed the opposition so far as they could. Even when the aerial support finally arrived, the sniper with the Mk12 continued to take out targets with the sniper rifle, sowing enough confusion among the Fedayeen to enable the Special Forces unit to withdraw eventually.
Dam assault
On April 1, 2003 C Squadron 1st SFOD-Delta and 3/7th Rangers, assaulted the Haditha dam complex, the fear being that the Iraqis would open the dam to flood invading U.S. forces. Having seized the complex, they then had to contend with an Iraqi counter-attack, and a Ranger sniper managed to kill three Iraqis who were preparing to launch an attack with rocket-propelled grenades.
The Ranger snipers provided critical fire support in defeating further Iraqi attacks. The Delta squadron headed north in the search for high value targets but ran foul of about six Iraqi technicians where two Delta operatives were wounded. MH-60 helicopters were called in to pull out the two wounded men but as the Iraqis continued to fire at the helicopters, Delta snipers set to work to silence the opposition.
SEAL snipers were employed in the seizure of the Mukarayin dam, northeast of Baghdad. Six MH-53J ‘Pave Low’ helicopters were employed in the attack, with the snipers traveling in the lead helicopter. The operation was supported by Polish GROM Special Forces. The Pave Low helicopter carrying the SEAL snipers landed on the top of a three-story building and the snipers quickly deployed to cover the area. The remainder of the force deployed by fast-rope to secure both ends of the dam. The area was secured for five days pending the arrival of relief ground forces.
Objective Basra
The British operation to capture Basra, Operation “Telic,” involved about forty-six thousand troops, including five thousand Royal Navy, four thousand Royal Marines, twenty-six thousand British Army and eight thousand one hundred Royal Air Force. British Royal Marines and the U.S. 1st Marine Division assaulted the southern port of Um Qasr, with initial reconnaissance carried out by U.S. Navy SEALs and Polish GROM Special Forces. After this, British forces advanced north towards Basra, with SAS and Special Boat Squadron (SBS) going ahead. The British 16th Air Assault Brigade occupied the Ramallah airfield north of Basra, confronting the Iraqi 6th Armored Division. The British 7th Armored Division advanced directly on Basra, meeting stiff opposition. Fourteen Challenger 2 tanks of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards engaged with 14 Iraqi tanks. All of the Iraqi tanks were destroyed.
As the British approached Basra, the Special Forces in advance provided forward observation for artillery as well as providing sniper cover to target key Iraqi units, gun emplacements and so on that were trying to resist. Snipers were not confined to Special Forces, however. Accompanying units in the advance also had trained snipers with them. These included snipers from the Irish Guards and the Black Watch. As the Irish Guards moved towards and into the city itself, the use of snipers to keep the enemy at bay was a key component of their strategy. The commanding officer of 2 Company of 1st Battalion Irish Guards, Major Farrell, had a nine-man sniper team deployed in Basra. He knew that the presence of snipers among the British forces had an overwhelmingly negative influence on opposing Iraqi forces, including the local Fedayeen. Major Farrell said in an interview with the British Daily Telegraph newspaper:
“Our snipers are working in pairs, infiltrating the enemy’s territory, to give us very good observation of what is going on inside Basra and to shoot the enemy as well when opportunity arises. They don’t kill huge numbers, but the psychological effect and the denial of freedom of movement of the enemy is vast. Our snipers have done really well. What they do is very brave.”
Street fighting
The way the Irish Guards snipers worked was to deploy in Warrior armored personnel carriers. At a given signal, the snipers would deploy out of the back of the vehicles while other troops provided covering fire with standard weapons. This initial phase would usually attract a range of enemy fire, including small arms and mortars. The idea was that, in the confusion of the battle, the enemy would not notice that not all of the British soldiers had pulled out. Once inside the buildings, however, the snipers would begin to dominate the situation, finding optimum positions from which to observe the area around them and to send back reports. The snipers, therefore, provide a useful dual role, capable of both acting as forward observers and calling in artillery or air strikes if necessary or using their sniper rifles to engage targets directly.
The snipers are confident in their training, knowing that in their concealed positions their only real threat would be a trained enemy sniper. The British snipers in Basra were equipped with the Accuracy International 7.62mm (0.3in) L96A1 bolt-action sniper rifle.
On one occasion, as reported by Sergeant Eddie Waring of the Irish Guards, the enemy were a little too close for comfort. The British snipers had installed themselves on a rooftop when they heard the Iraqis coming into the house below. The snipers had only three options: either to call in an Irish Guards rapid reaction squad, to fight their way out of the building or to remain completely still and hope the enemy would not notice them.
On this occasion the third option worked, though the snipers decided to wait in the building until a relief force from the SBS arrived to back up their withdrawal from the area. On another occasion Eddie Waring took out some Iraqi soldiers who were laying anti-tank mines. The sniping was not all one way, however, and two Irish Guardsmen were killed by insurgent snipers during the Basra occupation.
House-to-house
The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) performed similar duties to the Irish Guards. The regiment was involved in the action to capture the city of Al Zubayr prior to the attack on Basra itself. In one incident, the Black Watch sniper team, while attempting to get themselves under cover in the usual way, found themselves in a street fight that was up close and personal. The sniper team had already killed a member of the Iraqi militia with a head shot. The remaining militiamen then disappeared into a house, with the snipers hot on their heels.
Lance-Corporal Pedro Laing reached the house first and kicked down the door. As he entered and shoved an old man safely out of the door, an insurgent inside the house threw a grenade at his head. Laing ducked and the grenade flew out into the street, where it exploded, wounding one of Laing’s colleagues. Next, the insurgent picked up an AK47 and fired a burst at Laing, who again ducked. This was beginning to seem like some sort of computer game where the player randomly selects alternative weapons. Next on the menu was an RPG launcher, which the insurgent also fired at Laing. Again, Laing got out of the way in time and the grenade crossed the street before exploding, sending Corporal Harvey cartwheeling over a sandy bank. Harvey did not have time to worry about the damage he had sustained. He got up and fired at the insurgent in the doorway, killing him. Laing and his other companion then burst into the house and began to clear it with grenades and personal weapons while a Challenger tank nearby fired its machine gun into the top story. Soon all the insurgents were dead. This was not normal sniper work but it showed that snipers had to be ready for anything.
Otherwise, for sniper Vincent Polus of the Black Watch, sniping had been of the traditional variety. Vincent had spent hours in position watching a designated target area and over a period of eight days he recorded three kills. If a target appeared, Polus would radio his commander and ask for permission to fire. Then he would take two deep breaths before exhaling and squeezing the trigger. At one point Polus had spotted six men in civilian clothes walking towards a pickup truck, one of them a bodyguard carrying an AK47 assault rifle. Polus went through his r
outine, talking in a low voice through his radio mouthpiece to request permission to fire. Permission given, he looked through the telescopic sight and adjusted his aim. He took his two deep breaths and then, while exhaling, squeezed the trigger. The bodyguard, who had climbed into the pickup, instantly fell out of it. The vehicle accelerated away and disappeared momentarily. Soon, however, it reappeared again and, once again Polus took careful aim. This time he hit the driver in the head, sending him reeling out of the vehicle and into a ditch. Not far away, a fellow sniper, Sergeant Mark Cameron, also had his sights on the vehicle. Firing twice, he killed two of the passengers while the remaining two ran away.
An Iraqi Shiite sniper loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fires at U.S. troops near the cemetery in Najaf, Iraq, on August 22, 2004. He is using a Dragunov SVD sniper rifle.
AUSTRALIAN SASR
The operations of the Australian SASR began early in the war and before the main attack was mounted. The 1st Squadron Group Australian SASR, supported by 5th Aviation Regiment, was deployed to western Iraq from February 2003, part of their mission being to track down “Scud” and other Iraqi missile launchers.
This time, however, the Iraqis were wise to the presence of Allied Special Forces and sent out teams to intercept them. Sure enough, the Australians soon found themselves in contact with an Iraqi unit and, after an exchange of fire, some Iraqis were captured. More Iraqis were captured after a similar encounter and there was another incident where the SASR succeeded in destroying an Iraqi radio relay station. After this, a more powerful Iraqi unit comprising at least six vehicles attacked the SASR but the Australians were able to respond with long-range anti-materiel sniper rifles, Javelin antitank missiles and other weaponry. The Australian SASR moved on to a highway intersection at Highway 10 and Expressway 1 where they defeated local Iraqi forces. Here, they could watch the road, with snipers in position to intercept any Iraqi attempts at resupply. On April 16, 2003, the SASR moved on to their next objective, the Al Asad air base. Although they were outnumbered, the Australians managed to defeat an Iraqi pre-emptive strike mounted on sports utility vehicles and went on to take over the base.
A sniper team from Australian Army Security Detachment Iraq (SECDET XIV). The Australian Army is issued with the Accuracy International SR-98 sniper rifle and the SR-25 sniper rifle.
Special Forces snipers in northern Iraq
Operation “Iraqi Freedom” had begun with Tomahawk cruise missile strikes from ships and submarines that hit selected targets in Baghdad, the aim being to take out buildings where Saddam Hussein himself and his closest supporters might taking refuge.
In northern Iraq, however, the only option open to the Allied forces was to deploy Special Forces and other air-transportable units. The original intention had been to deploy the 4th Infantry Division via Turkey but Turkey was not prepared to allow military movements over its territory. It was decided, therefore, to deploy the 10th Special Forces Group in the region and for them to collaborate with local Kurdish forces who were hostile to the Iraqi regime. At the time, two-fifths of the available Iraqi military strength was allocated to the north and the object was to keep these units busy so that they did not have time to reinforce units in the south, who would suffer the impact of the main invasion. The U.S. operation was under the control of Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command (CFSOCC) and the Special Forces were reinforced by 173rd Airborne Brigade.
A sniper of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment aims at insurgents in Helmand province, Afghanistan, with the new 7.62mm (0.3in) M110 semiautomatic sniper system with a Leupold 3.5–10x variable power daytime optic, January 2010. The new system was developed to replace the M24 rifle.
Joint Special Operations Task Force-North (JSOTF-North), apart from its task to engage with enemy units across a broad front, was also tasked with securing the oil-producing city of Kirkuk.
Inserting the Special Forces in the first place was no easy task. Flying in six Lockheed MC-130 Combat Talon aircrafts, they came under a hail of gunfire as they entered Iraqi airspace, one of the aircrafts being so badly damaged that it had to head back into Turkey and request special permission to land. The first objective for the U.S. Special Forces and their Kurdish allies was an Iraqi terrorist group known as Ansar al-Islam. The Special Forces divided themselves among the Kurds who were mostly armed with the rugged and reliable AK47 assault rifle. The Special Forces themselves had a range of weapons at their disposal, including 60mm (2.36in) mortars, 7.62mm (0.3in) M240 light machine guns, 40mm (1.57in) Mk 19 automatic grenade launchers, 12.7mm (0.5in) M2 machine guns and, of course, sniper rifles, which included the 12.7mm (0.5in) Barrett.
In the first attack against Ansar, although the Special Forces were able to call in initial air support from F/A-18s, once the planes left and the attack began, an Ansar machine gun opened up on the Kurds. The momentum of the attack could have stalled. It was vital to cut out the enemy fire. A Special Forces sergeant aimed his sniper rifle at the enemy gunmen and then took them out one by one. The enemy fire began to die down and the attack went through.
After defeating Ansar in this attack, the teams moved on to other objectives. Team ODA 081, comprising a captain, team sergeant, two medics, one weapons sergeant and a communications sergeant moved on with a team of Kurds towards Sargat. As they advanced, they came under Ansar fire from the mountains, including machine-gun fire and mortars. Things became extremely dicey as the mortars crept closer to their cover positions. Reinforcements were not yet available but they had a weapons sergeant with an M21 sniper rifle who scanned the rocks for possible targets. As the team attempted to get closer to the Ansar position in order to counter-attack, a second weapons sergeant came to their aid from a ridge about a kilometer away. Using his sniper rifle, he began to take out one Ansar gunner after another until several were lying dead.
In view of the failure to get heavy reinforcements into position in time, it was the snipers who had saved the day. In order for the Special Forces to mesh effectively with the Peshmerga and other Kurd forces, a number of 10th Special Forces Group and personnel of the CIA Special Activities Division (SAD) had been infiltrated into Kurdistan as early as 2002.
SAS sniper operation
Once Allied forces had defeated the Iraqi Army and moved into Baghdad, there were numerous episodes of sniper activity involving both Special Forces and regular forces.
The British Special Air Service Regiment (22 SAS) ran a number of operations that included sniper operations. SAS training includes specialist sniper training for some soldiers and the SAS included some of the top snipers in the world. The SAS sniper armory includes the 7.62mm (0.3in) Accuracy International PM sniper rifle and the 12.7mm (0.5in) Barrett long-range sniper rifle. In July 2005, the SAS were called in to intercept three suspected suicide bombers who were planning a mission in Baghdad. The information was provided by an Iraqi agent working for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). A sixteen-man SAS team was deployed along with U.S. Special Forces of 1st SFOD-D (Delta), comprising Task Force Black.
Lance-Sergeant Chris Briggs of 1st Battalion Irish Guards keeps watch near the city of Basra, Iraq in April 2003 as Royal Engineers attempt to put out oil-well fires.
Before dawn, the SAS team took up positions with views of a particular house in Baghdad. The core team comprised snipers and spotters while the other Special Forces elements of Task Force Red provided perimeter security. Intelligence agents had positioned listening devices in the building so that the team had early warning of when the suicide bombers were likely to leave. The only problem with intercepting three targets once they had come out into the street is that if one of them was hit, the others would most probably set off their bombs, causing massive collateral damage and probable death to civilians nearby. In other words, all three targets had to be hit simultaneously and none of them could be allowed to get up again.
To make absolutely sure of their targets, the SAS were equipped with the newest and be
st sniper rifle available to the British Army, the Accuracy International L115A. Firing 8.59mm (0.338in) Lapua rounds, this was one of the most powerful and accurate rifles available. With intelligence coming through from the listening posts, the SAS snipers would have been able to get some idea of when their targets would appear on the street so as to make final checks and adjust their breathing pattern. Shortly after 8:00 a.m., the three terrorists opened the door and stepped out into the street. Three rifles fired simultaneously and the three terrorists collapsed with wounds to the head.
Sniper firefight
In April 2004 the 1st Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment arrived in Al Amarah. Among them was Sergeant Dan Mills who as part of a fifteen-man sniper squad was to find himself constantly close to the heart of the action. He would vividly record his exploits in his book Sniper One: The Blistering True Story of a British Battle Group Under Siege. Dan Mills and his unit got a warm reception from local Iraqi insurgents when they went on their first patrol in “Snatch” Land Rover Defenders, finding themselves in a firefight from which they managed to extract themselves through adroit use of battle drills and the SA-80 automatic rifle. Once they had recovered, Mills located optimum positions for his sniper team, including the top of an unused prison on the outskirts of the south of the city.
The unit was armed with the Accuracy International 7.62mm (0.3in) L96 sniper rifle. They were supplied with “green spot” ammunition, the green spot indicating that they were part of a batch of the first five thousand out of the mold. This meant that they were mostly untarnished. The L96 rifle was fitted with a Schmidt and Bender x12 magnification telescopic sight, which could also be fitted with a SIMRAD night filter. The sniper’s number two had three sets of binoculars, one of which was thermal and could pick up the heat signature of the human body. The observer also had a laser range finder and a periscope of a type first used in World War II. This would allow him to see over a parapet without raising his head.
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