Enlightening conquest of ‘legendary’ Iraqi, Syrian snipers

The very “limited” American-French-British airstrikes on targets that are linked to Syrian chemical weapons were not deterred by Russian rockets or Iranian or Assad defense systems. This is a clear truth.

But wait a minute. We forgot about the rifle of a “legendary” Syrian citizen who downed a smart American rocket. I do not know though how he could tell it was American, and not a French or a British missile!

The Syrian sniper

Lebanese journalist Hazem al-Amin’s reported in al-Hayat newspaper: “A Lebanese spokesman for the Syrian regime narrated on a Lebanese television channel how a Syrian soldier used his rifle to down a missile that American jets fired during the airstrikes launched at the end of last week on Syrian regime bases in Damascus and Homs.”

“The spokesman said that the Syrian soldier received orders to resist the missiles using his rifle so he hit the missile’s engine which made the missile fall without exploding. The Syrian army then gifted the missile to the Russian army to detect the ‘intelligence’ of the missiles which Donald Trump spoke of,” Amin added.

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It seems that this skilled Syrian sniper has surpassed the Iraqi sniper Abi Minqash, a peasant who used a Brno rifle to down a frightening American Apache fighter in 2003 during the war to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The Iranian sniper

Back then, Saddam’s Baathist media outlets marketed this incident as a semi-divine, pure and natural heroism - later on all wars became purely divine with Nasrallah’s group - and a bunch of Arabs and Muslims received the story with plenty of enthusiasm.

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At the time, I remember, the famous Saudi preacher Dr. Aid al-Qarni wrote an excellent poem about the Iraqi farmer, the owner of the scorching, miraculous Brno rifle, and commended him.

The poem read:

Abu Minqash, well done so keep going
Your deed O son of honor is an act of a lion
You downed the Apache with bullets like hailstone
Load your rifle with fire and do not fear death as this is very serious
Slaughter the uluj, much to their disappointment
Then chant: He is Allah, who is one

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According to the Assad Baathist media that’s blended with the resistant Khomeini media touch, the Syrian sniper has surpassed himself as he accurately hit the engine of the “smart” missile and not the missile’s body or warhead. Something that was much smarter than what the Iraqi Abu Minqash did.

These rare human capabilities, like those of the American Tomahawk hunter, must be well-preserved, just as well-preserved as that downed missile. These “capabilities” must also not decay in the usual sea of Arab ingratitude!

One Arab nation, with one immortal rifle.

This article was first published in Arabic.

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Saudi journalist Mashari Althaydi presents Al Arabiya News Channel’s “views on the news” daily show “Maraya.” He has previously held the position of a managing senior editor for Saudi Arabia & Gulf region at pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. Althaydi has published several papers on political Islam and social history of Saudi Arabia. He appears as a guest on several radio and television programs to discuss the ideologies of extremist groups and terrorists. He tweets under @MAlthaydy.