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meh kids stuff. :P
BRITISH security officials are looking into suspicions that a crack sniper who killed 10 Israeli soldiers and civilians on the West Bank a week ago might be an IRA gunman.
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, has asked European and American security agencies if they can help to identify the killer, who shot dead seven soldiers and three civilians in 25 minutes using 25 bullets from a bolt-action rifle.
The sniper was hidden in trees on a hill overlooking an army checkpoint near the Jewish settlement of Ofra. When he fled, he left behind his weapon, which is standard IRA practice.
The attack last Sunday shocked the Israeli Defence Force. Mossad believes that the sniper could be an IRA agent or special forces-trained contract killer.
The Sunday Telegraph understands that British security officials have been checking whether any known IRA members capable of carrying out the shootings or training others to do so have gone abroad in recent weeks.
One security official said: "To be able to get 10 kills in 25 minutes using 25 rounds without being spotted means this guy is good. He could be a former member of the IRA; he could be a former member of a special forces unit. He is clearly well trained."
The IRA is known to have links with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and other Middle East armed groups, and at least one member of the IRA's army council is known to speak Arabic. The security official added: "Many IRA men and women have been trained in camps in the Middle East and north Africa."
Training and tactical exchanges between the IRA and other terrorist groups is not unusual. Last year, four alleged IRA members were arrested in Columbia and charged with terrorist offences after allegedly training members of the Revolutionary Forces of Columbia (Farc) guerrillas.
Last October, a European security conference in France concluded that new links had been created and old ones regenerated between the IRA, Basque separatists and Farc.
British security forces are well aware of the IRA's sniping skills. During the 1990s, nine soldiers and policemen were murdered by snipers in South Armagh.
More info:
... "For a few weeks in early 2002, just about every Irishman had been looked at as the infamous IRA sniper who was roaming the West Bank hills in search of Israeli victims.
The Israeli security forces at the airport were very keen to know what knowledge I had of the "Irish sniper" who had already shot dead several IDF soldiers in the West Bank.
The tale of the alleged IRA sniper who joined the Palestinian fight had spread like wildfire but there was little or no evidence to support the theory.
What we knew for sure was that in March 2002 a lone gunman had taken up a position high above an Israeli army checkpoint on a stretch of road between Ramallah and Nablus. shortly after first light he opened fire and, with single shots fired from a rifle of WWII vintage, picked off several of the army reservists manning the checkpoint.
The gunman was so patient that on several occasions the soldiers believed he had gone. As they began to emerge from behind their concrete barriers, he opened up again. He fired 15 shots and killed 10 people. Then he dropped the rifle and simply walked away.
The operation was so markedly different from the suicidal nature of previous attacks that in Israel, word quickly spread that it couldn't possibly have been the work of a Palestinian.
Some British journalist decided it had to be the work of the IRA. Or at least an IRA sniper. A gun for hire."