A Canadian sniper in Iraq took out an ISIS terrorist from more than 2 miles away, Canadian Armed Forces confirmed on Thursday.
"The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target at 3,540 metres," the forces told the Globe and Mail. "For operational security reasons and to preserve the safety of our personnel and our Coalition partners we will not discuss precise details on when and how this incident took place."
The sniper was reportedly using a McMillan Tac-50 sniper rifle when he made the shot. The bullet traveled for just under 10 seconds before striking and killing the target. The shot was made in support of Iraqi security forces who were under attack by ISIS at the time.
"The shot in question actually disrupted a Daesh [Islamic State] attack on Iraqi security forces," a military source told the publication. "Instead of dropping a bomb that could potentially kill civilians in the area, it is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn't have a clue what was happening."
War stories are notoriously unreliable, but the Globe and Mail said its sources confirmed there is video evidence of the shot confirming it was made at 3,540 meters or about 2.1 miles.
"Hard data on this," a separate source told the paper. "It isn't an opinion. It isn't an approximation. There is a second location with eyes on with all the right equipment to capture exactly what the shot was."
British sniper Craig Harrison held the previous record for longest confirmed kill. He hit a Taliban fighter from 2,475 meters away with a .338 Lapua rifle in 2009. Before that, Canadian corporal Rob Furlong shot another Taliban insurgent with a .50 caliber rifle at 2,430 meters in Afghanistan in 2002.