Rumor: Is a "Phantom Sniper" Killing Jihadists In Libya?

Via LeFigaro.

This stinks of tabloid bullshit, but it's kind of fun to imagine to be true.

Over the past 12 days, three top ISIS jihadis have died under mysterious conditions. According to a rumor, they may have been killed by an elite sniper, unidentified, acting on his own behalf.

The story hasn't stopped fascinating the social networks. In Libya, at Syrte, a city controlled by ISIS since the start of 2015, an elusive elite killer may have killed three top jihadis. According to Alwasat, a local media outlet, Abduallah Hamad al-Ansari, commandant of the southerly city of Oubari, was killed in front of a bank January 23rd, while exiting a mosque in the city center. A second official of ISIS, Abou Mohammad Dernawi, was found dead January 19, 70 kilometers from Syrte. The third man, Hamad Abdel Hady, a Sudanese, member of a Sharia court, died near a hospital.

All three deaths under the same circumstances: A bullet to the head, shot from long range. This M.O. resembles another assassination, according to an Italian journalist from Il Foglio, which occurred in June in the province of Syrte.

This kind of shooting against the Islamic State in Sirte allegedly started in July, with a similar modus operandi pic.twitter.com/SRiqkg1Gt9

— Daniele Raineri (@DanieleRaineri) January 25, 2016

Given that the man behind these shootings cannot be identified, the rumor has begun being spread on social media and in local news outlets: He must be an "ISIS-Hunter."

The three places in Sirte where a sniper has *allegedly* shot men of the Islamic state in the last 10 days pic.twitter.com/LWEUPzXVxF

— Daniele Raineri (@DanieleRaineri) January 26, 2016

...

It could be a question of a man, originally of the neighboring town of Syrte, Misrata, a martyr city of the revolution which helped in the fall of Kadafi in 2011. Misrata is today the last bastion against the advance of ISIS in the region.

For others, the sniper must be a a former elite British commando sniper of the SAS. The English tabloid DailyStar has even confirmed this rumor, claiming to have confirmation from an intelligence source, specifying that the sniper may very well be a former special forces soldier. "Therre are a number of clues that indicate this man was trained by the British army and there is a strong presumption that is a former member of special forces," said the vaunted source to the journal.

Between Rumor and Propaganda

These rumors have however been denied by Libya al-Hurra, a Libyan television channel which broadcasts from Doha. Over its Twitter account, the channel explained that this story may have all been simply invented to cover the death of one of the dead bosses.

Rumor or not, a campaign of terror has been launched by ISIS to find the man responsible for these shootings.

I wonder if Sydney Blumenthal will provide us any intelligence on this, after he sends an email to Hillary's secret illegal server and gets it hacked by a Croatian teenager.

Here's the British tabloid DailyStar claiming a whole bunch of things.

posted by Ace at 12:17 PM

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