The Jihadist was struck with such velocity that an arm and shoulder were ripped from his torso, causing instantaneous death.

A British Special Air Services (SAS) sniper is reported to have shot down a senior Daesh* commander in Afghanistan from over a mile away.

The sergeant — who now holds the title for best long-range shot ever in the SAS — used a.50 Calibre machine gun mounted on the roof of his military vehicle to take out the Islamist. It is believed that this is the first time a machine gun has been used in the SAS for a long-range kill.

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The team were patrolling an area of Northern Afghanistan believed to be a stronghold for Daesh’s small but budding presence in the war-torn country when reportedly, they identified a Daesh base. To their surprise, they then spotted a senior terrorist commander whose name appeared on a joint US-UK 'kill list.'

Although the elite soldiers were armed with sniper riffles, after weighing up their options, they came to the conclusion that the best weapon for attempting to hit the target was a massive 40 year old machine gun. One anonymous source has been widely quoted as saying that, “the.50 Cal has got a phenomenal range and is very accurate even though it is almost 40 years old.”

After requesting permission to engage from the Join Special Operations Command HQ in Kabul, one soldier stepped up to take the shot.

The Daesh commander was reportedly briefing a small group of Jihadist fighters when he was hit in the chest by the SAS sniper’s bullet. One source familiar with what happened has been cited as saying, “it took several seconds for the round to hit the commander who appeared to fly into several pieces. For a few seconds no-one moved. When they realised what had happened they got up and ran away.”

According to Britain’s Daily Star Sunday newspaper, the killing of the commander is thought to have saved upward of 20 lives.

*Daesh (ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia