Insurgents Post Sniper Training Exercises Online
May 17, 2005 — -- Web sites maintained by Iraqi insurgents and their supporters contain chilling instructions that tell recruits how to become snipers and how to inflict the maximum damage, ABC News has learned.
A Defense Department document is being disseminated to U.S. commanders in Iraq to inform them about the insurgency's newest tactic, ABC News has learned.
The document contains information from pro-insurgency Web sites, translated by Pentagon analysts, that instructs would-be snipers to target U.S. and coalition military commanders, officers and pilots because replacing them "may take two to four years and cost more than $500,000 to put someone through the famous West Point."
Snipers are also directed to target U.S. special forces because, according to the site, "they are very stupid because they have a Rambo complex, thinking that they are the best in the world. Don't be arrogant like them."
The Web site also features a training exercise game called "Who Would You Shoot?" It's the first time U.S. analysts say they have seen an interactive Web site aimed at Iraqi insurgents.
"If you had only one shot," the site asks, "who should you kill?"
Users can choose from several options, and then they are told the "correct" answer.
In one scenario, which features an image of Ambassador L. Paul Bremer -- the former U.S. administrator in Iraq -- flanked by a security escort, the site says "If you killed this person, you would know the next day that you have killed Paul Bremer without knowing it, because they don't provide such protection for anyone else."
In another scenario, which features an image of an American tank with soldiers standing in the foreground, the site says, "If you said the soldiers, you are wrong. Kill the gunner on the left [of the tank], then the driver on the right," therefore disabling the tank.
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