During a WikiLeaks deep dive, we ran across an interesting AAR that seems to indicate the insurgents are using .50 cal sniper rifles to target coalition troops.
Narang base took approximately 10 single fire shots from the west. they immdiately engaged w/ heavy weapons and 81mm. shortly after, they received a small barage of (probably AK) fire from the east from 2-5 personnel. they engaged w/ heavy weapons and 81mm again. A10 came on station 20-30 minutes later. A10s and a AH64 that was in the area positively identified a cave.[10:28] ground commander confirmed that this cave had perfect line of sight and fire to FOB while having cover and concealment. Cave was engaged w/ 1x500lb bomb in order to kill enemy hiding in cave/close cave to prevent from further use [10:30] Destined_Base bda as follows: cave is 90% collapsed. 1018Z Round recovered indicates that single round SAF appeared to be .50 caliber weapon.
We tipped off Kit Up! readers a couple months ago to our friend CJ Chivers' analysis of enemy sharpshooters in and around Marjah that indicated the Enfield was the weapon of choice instead of the Dragonov or other precision rifles.
Well, the above report from June of 2006 in the region just south of Asadabad shows that at least some bad guys are plinking our troops with some heavy rounds. Not sure if there's ever been any public reports of this kind of weapon being used for precision shots, but it sure elevates the sniper threat for troops in the field. Please be sure to let Kit Up! know if you've seen or heard of this kind of round being used by enemy snipers. Have there been any Barrets captured by the bad guys? Could it be the Yugoslav M-93 or the South African Truvelo?
