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Iraqi snipers learn online

May 18, 2005 12:20 IST
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, reports ABC News.

A Defense Department document is being disseminated to US commanders in Iraq to inform them about the insurgency's newest tactic, said ABC.

According to ABC, the document contains information from pro-insurgency websites, translated by Pentagon analysts, which instructs would-be snipers to target US 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."

The report said the website also asks snipers to target US special forces because, "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 website also features

a training exercise game called "Who Would You Shoot?" It's the first time US analysts say they have seen an interactive Web site aimed at Iraqi insurgents, said ABC.

"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.

According to ABC, in one scenario, which features an image of Ambassador L. Paul Bremer — the former US 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."

Another scenario features an image of an American tank with soldiers standing in the foreground. 

"If you said the soldiers, you are wrong. Kill the gunner on the left [of the tank], then the driver on the right," thereby  disabling the tank, the website says.