62-Year-Old Sniper Says He’s Killed 173 ISIS Fighters in the Past Year

By Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips
Breaking News Reporter
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter who covers a range of topics, including politics, U.S., and health news. A father of two, Jack grew up in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
March 17, 2016Updated: March 17, 2016

Chris Kyle, the subject of the movie “American Sniper,” has been celebrated (or reviled, depending on who you ask) for having 160 confirmed kills.

However, a 62-year-old Iraqi man says that he has killed 173 ISIS fighters since May 2015.

Abu Tahseen is a member of the Hashd Al-Shaabi Shia militia who are fighting ISIS in northern Iraq.

The clip where he claims to have killed 173 fighters has been around for a few months, but it didn’t get widespread media coverage until this week. The footage shows Tasheen firing a shot from his rifle, allegedly hitting a militant in the Iraqi mountains. “Sweet,” he then says.

Tasheen also apparently obtained a radio of ISIS fighters. “This is ISIS that’s attacking us,” he says.

(Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units/YouTube screenshot)
(Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units/YouTube screenshot)

He says: “I swear, I guarantee by God when he falls, this pushes him back a meter before putting him down.”

Last year, he joined Popular Mobilization Units as a volunteer to defend Iraq, and he’s currently stationed at Makhoul Mountains in North Baiji.

(Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units/YouTube screenshot)
(Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units/YouTube screenshot)

(Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units/YouTube screenshot)
(Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units/YouTube screenshot)

“You see this area—I guarantee to god, no-one would come up it,” Tasheen says of his battlefield vantage point.

Tasheen is a veteran of five wars, including the Yom Kippur war, the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War in the 1990s, and the current fight against ISIS.

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“I’m relaxed, my mind is relaxed,” Tasheen adds. “Last time they gave me a month off and after 12 days I came back.”