Counter-Sniping
It is important, in this context, to appreciate that sniping is a range-independent tactic and not, as so many people seem to think, solely a long-range discipline. Of course, snipers do have the ability to shoot out to very long ranges with great accuracy, but they also have the ability to move unseen across any piece of real estate in full view of an enemy and remain unseen or take up a fire position, even at comparatively short range. Snipers also have a second weapon, that of inducing fear and paralysis over a wide area, when enemy individuals perceive that they are being shot at but have no idea where the shot is coming from. Such people, also, are not concerned whether the shooter is close by or far away, only that he is firing at them. Thus, distance shooting is but one aspect of the sniper’s role.
ABOVE: Finnish troops carry out countersniper training under British supervision during cross training as part of a joint operation in the Balkans. Counter-sniping is a manpower- and time-intensive operation.
The terrorist threat
A whole new range of frightening scenarios has opened up since the horrific use of civilian airliners in the “9/11” attacks on civilian and military targets within the continental USA. The world had long been used to such groups as the PIRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army), Hezbollah, Fatah, and Abu Nidal as they carried out attacks that occasionally received worldwide media coverage, but now another, international, fear-inducing name became more widely voiced—Al-Qaeda. 199