A British sniper killed five Taliban insurgents and a would-be suicide bomber in Afghanistan with one bullet, the Ministry of Defence has said. The 20-year-old marksman, a lance corporal within the Coldstream Guards, hit the trigger switch of the device from 930 yards away, causing the bomb to blow up. The blast killed the would-be bomber and five men around him, an MOD spokesman said.
The incident in December in Kakaran, southern Afghanistan, have been disclosed as Britain prepares to depart from the rustic by the top of the year. Lt Col Richard Slack, commanding officer of 9/12 Royal Lancers, told The Daily Telegraph the unnamed shooter also prevented another major attack as a second suicide vest full of explosives was found nearby.
“The guy was wearing a vest. He was identified by the sniper moving down a tree line and arising over a ditch,” he said. “He had a scarf on. It rose up and the sniper saw he had a machine gun. “They were in touch and he was moving to a firing position. The sniper engaged him and the fellow exploded. There has been a pause at the radio and the sniper said, ‘I think I’ve just shot a suicide bomber’. The remainder of them were killed within the blast.”
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