High-powered British sniper rifles made by a Portsmouth-based company, Accuracy International, are being used by marksmen loyal to the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, to attack opposition rebels.
Footage of the regime’s marksmen using the weapons, which each cost £4,500 and have a range of just under a mile, appeared last week on Russian television as President Vladimir Putin ordered a series of bombing and missile raids on groups seeking to overthrow Assad.
Tim Ripley has been writing on defence issues since 1990, for a wide range of British and international publications. He has reported from conflict zones in the Balkans and Middle East, as well as major defence and aerospace industry exhibitions around the world. Recent assignments include the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, the Farnborough, Paris, Dubai and Singapore Airshows, NATO Headquarters in Brussels, The Hague war crimes tribunal and the Pentagon in Washington DC.
His news reporting and features have appeared in the mainstream news media (The Sunday Telegraph, The Economist, The Scotsman) as well as specialist defence publications (Jane's Defence Weekly, Jane's Intelligence Review, Jane's Sentinel, Air Forces Monthly, Air International, Defence Helicopter, Unmanned Vehicles, Flight International, Flight Daily News, World Air Power Journal, International Air Power Review)
Leave a Reply