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Long Range Surveillance/Sniper Detachment
 ... In Iraq, the US army has deployed for the first time a 42nd Infantry Division unit known as "Intel Snipers", i.e. sniper-trained soldiers of the division's 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment. They are armed with newly-issued M-14 rifles which have never been surpassed as a marksman's weapon... Capt. Michael Manning, commander of the US unit, describes the M-14 as a tremendous force multiplier. It is an integral part of the unit's equipment for LRS-Long Range Surveillance and targeting. In Iraq, the unit will operate 80-100 km inside enemy terrain, observe and report on improvised explosive devices and indirect fire and, if ordered, eliminate insurgents with their sniper rifles which are capable of neutralizing targets at a distance of 800 meters. The American Intel Snipers will also be charged with sterilizing the vicinity of US bases, command posts and convoys of hostile threats... The deployment in Iraq of the 42nd Infantry Division's 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment with their M-14 marksman's rifles likewise indicates that the assertions coming from President George Bush and outgoing secretary of state Colin Powell regarding the beginning of US troop withdrawals from Iraq are premature. The Iraq war is far from over. Deploying the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment may be an effective ad hoc device for widening the distance between terrorists and their would-be victims at the local level... But it cannot promise to extinguish the terrorist threat for good. Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-01-19 |
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