A British sniper in Afghanistan managed to kill six insurgents by getting a precise shot on the trigger switch of an explosive vest worn by a suicide bomber, setting off the device and killing the men around him as well.
The Telegraph reports that the sniper, a 20 year-old Lance Corporal in the Coldstream Guards whose name has not been made public, hit his target, amazingly, from 930 yards away.
The British soldiers believed the suicide bomber planned to blow himself up at a UK base, a security checkpoint, or a civilian target. British and Afghan soldiers became engaged in a firefight when the sniper identified one man as a suicide bomber based on his vest.
"He had a shawl on. It rose up and the sniper saw he had a machine gun," said Lt. Col. Slack, referring to the suicide bomber. "They were in contact and he was moving to a firing position. The sniper engaged him and the guy exploded. There was a pause on the radio and the sniper said, 'I think I’ve just shot a suicide bomber.' The rest of them were killed in the blast."
The incident occurred on one of the last missions to be carried out by British troops in Afghanistan last December, according to the Daily Mail. The details of the mission have only now been made public.