Post by Admin on Jan 3, 2020 16:39:11 GMT
Abu Tahsin al-Salhi, Iraqi veteran sniper and Popular Mobilization Forces(PMF) volunteer. Nicknamed 'The Sheikh of Snipers', he was credited with killing over ~320 (Some say it has gone up to 380+) ISIS members during the Iraqi Civil War. Wikipedia went ahead and added an extra zero and said he killed 3800+ ISIS members, which is simply not true and articles about him usually give him 320-380 ISIS kills. Now that seems a lot more reasonable for 3 years of warfare.
He was killed on Sep 29th, 2017, during the battle of Hawija, at the age of 64.
As a young man, he traveled to Kuwait for work and worked as a shepherd. He had a French rifle for protection and hunting rabbits, and that's how he learned how to shoot.
He joined the Iraqi Army in 1973 and traveled to Belarus for sniper training from the Soviet Union. He took 2nd place in the course.
He was a veteran of the Yom Kippur War, the Second Kurdish–Iraqi war, the Iran–Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait and both Gulf wars.
After the fall of the Saddam regime in 2003, he surrendered, then joined a PMC and continued in that job till he joined the fight against ISIS in 2014.
PS: That rifle he's posing within these pictures is an AM50, an Iranian clone of the Steyr HS50 that Austria sold to Iran some 15 years ago. Given the history between the two countries, it's a little funny how close they are today. The present Iraqi government(installed by the US) even tried to persuade Trump not to back out of the Iran deal and reimpose sanctions on them.
He was killed on Sep 29th, 2017, during the battle of Hawija, at the age of 64.
As a young man, he traveled to Kuwait for work and worked as a shepherd. He had a French rifle for protection and hunting rabbits, and that's how he learned how to shoot.
He joined the Iraqi Army in 1973 and traveled to Belarus for sniper training from the Soviet Union. He took 2nd place in the course.
He was a veteran of the Yom Kippur War, the Second Kurdish–Iraqi war, the Iran–Iraq War, the invasion of Kuwait and both Gulf wars.
After the fall of the Saddam regime in 2003, he surrendered, then joined a PMC and continued in that job till he joined the fight against ISIS in 2014.
PS: That rifle he's posing within these pictures is an AM50, an Iranian clone of the Steyr HS50 that Austria sold to Iran some 15 years ago. Given the history between the two countries, it's a little funny how close they are today. The present Iraqi government(installed by the US) even tried to persuade Trump not to back out of the Iran deal and reimpose sanctions on them.
It makes me wish there was a Hollywood movie about his life. He seems like he had a noteworthy career like Chris Kyle and possibly any other sniper of the modern era.
