It turns out there are at least some boots on the ground in the fight against ISIS, and those boots — British boots — are capable of shots like this:

A Hero SAS sniper gunned down a knife-wielding Islamic State (ISIS) maniac just as he was trying to brutally behead a father and his young son. The brave British marksman saved the terrified eight-year-old and his father after taking out the crazed jihadi with a head shot from 1,000 metres away.


The story is amazing, and it shows the value of — to paraphrase the U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Creed — engaging and destroying your enemies in close combat. The effect can be demoralizing:

Defence sources described how the SAS unit moved into a position just outside a village where ISIS members were holding the ‘trial’ in front of a crowd of locals who had been forced to attend at gunpoint. The crack team considered calling in an air strike using a Reaper Drone, but the elite troops feared many of the innocent civilians who had been forced to watch the executions might also be killed. The SAS marksman, using a .50 calibre sniper rifle fitted with a silencer, killed the executioner just in time. The source added: “The ISIS thug who was about to decapitate the father was shot in the head and collapsed. “Everyone just stared in confusion. The sniper then dispatched the two henchmen with single shots – three kills with three bullets.

This is how you win friends and influence people in the Middle East, by using decisive force.

The SAS team was later told the village held a party to celebrate the deaths of the ISIS fighters and it is understood terrorists have since refused to enter the town.

But then the story ends with this intriguing note:

SAS teams have fought alongside resistance fighters in both Iraq and Syria for more than a year.


With British special forces engaged on the ground, at least someone is taking the fight to the enemy. It’s possible (likely?) there is an undisclosed American special forces presence as well, but as effective as these elite warriors are, they can’t take a nation-sized chunk of jihadist territory themselves. Yet small victories are better than no victories at all, and a child is alive today because of the skill and courage of the SAS. Well done.