Interesting article on our Ranger night snipers at work.
I don't know that I'd want to be woken out of a sound sleep by a Ranger unit with night vision or be sitting in my official Taliban lawn chair in the back of a 20 years old Toyota pick up truck at 2 in the morning and watch the guy next to you vaporize from a direct .50 hit out of nowhere. It might make me question whether the 81 virgins were really worth all that trouble and mess?
Gee, we have some good guys hard at work over there. One of them offsets a hundred and twenty slack jawed college protestors.
Don P.
Night snipers given freedom to pick targets
By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 24/11/2001)
AMERICAN special forces have an "unrestricted licence" to kill hundreds of Taliban and al-Qa'eda members in covert operations in southern Afghanistan, it was reported yesterday.
They have operated at night, ambushing and killing small bands of enemy soldiers, including commanders, said administration officials. SAS troops are working with the US forces.
As war planners in America work their way through a list of possible hiding places for Osama bin Laden and his commanders, destroying caves and buildings, details were revealed of the undercover operations.
A Bush administration official told the Washington Times: "They have killed in the hundreds. There have been no deaths on our side. They're not leaving a footprint. When these guys do sleep, they sleep on the ground. They don't have a fixed base camp."
The rules of engagement are said to be as loose as any since the Vietnam War. According to the newspaper, the special forces are using ordinary sniper rifles and the powerful .50 Barrett sniper rifle that was favoured by the IRA.
A group of lorry drivers gave a detailed account of the way in which American commandos are operating.
The men said they were sleeping next to their fuel-carrying vehicles when heavily-armed soldiers with night-vision goggles woke them up, bound them and took them a short distance away.
Then, after one of the men gave orders into a radio, two helicopters fired missiles at the lorries, which were completely destroyed.
I don't know that I'd want to be woken out of a sound sleep by a Ranger unit with night vision or be sitting in my official Taliban lawn chair in the back of a 20 years old Toyota pick up truck at 2 in the morning and watch the guy next to you vaporize from a direct .50 hit out of nowhere. It might make me question whether the 81 virgins were really worth all that trouble and mess?
Gee, we have some good guys hard at work over there. One of them offsets a hundred and twenty slack jawed college protestors.
Don P.
Night snipers given freedom to pick targets
By Ben Fenton
(Filed: 24/11/2001)
AMERICAN special forces have an "unrestricted licence" to kill hundreds of Taliban and al-Qa'eda members in covert operations in southern Afghanistan, it was reported yesterday.
They have operated at night, ambushing and killing small bands of enemy soldiers, including commanders, said administration officials. SAS troops are working with the US forces.
As war planners in America work their way through a list of possible hiding places for Osama bin Laden and his commanders, destroying caves and buildings, details were revealed of the undercover operations.
A Bush administration official told the Washington Times: "They have killed in the hundreds. There have been no deaths on our side. They're not leaving a footprint. When these guys do sleep, they sleep on the ground. They don't have a fixed base camp."
The rules of engagement are said to be as loose as any since the Vietnam War. According to the newspaper, the special forces are using ordinary sniper rifles and the powerful .50 Barrett sniper rifle that was favoured by the IRA.
A group of lorry drivers gave a detailed account of the way in which American commandos are operating.
The men said they were sleeping next to their fuel-carrying vehicles when heavily-armed soldiers with night-vision goggles woke them up, bound them and took them a short distance away.
Then, after one of the men gave orders into a radio, two helicopters fired missiles at the lorries, which were completely destroyed.