'ONE IN A MILLION' SAS sniper headshots ISIS chief from nearly a mile away in near total darkness at night

AN ELITE British sniper took out an ISIS commander with a "one in a million" headshot from a mile away in the dead of night, senior defence sources reportedly said.

It was near total darkness when the SAS  marksman shot dead the Islamist chief from 1,500m away with a bullet through the back of the head that "took his face off".Sources told the Daily Star on Sunday the sharpshooter had just 15 seconds to pull the trigger as the target got out of a vehicle on the Syrian border.

The source said: “The shot was one in a million. Getting a one-round, one-kill head shot at night using thermal imagery in a 15-second target window is about as close to impossible as you can get but he pulled it off.

“He is definitely the best sniper around at the moment.”

It is understood the solider is a sergeant with the SAS G-Squadron and has carried out numerous operations in Iraq and Afghanistan racking up more than 100 confirmed kills.The elite British unit has been deployed in counter-terrorist operations in Syria and Iraq in the past three months.

The Who Dares Wins trooper is said to have used a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle, an American-made weapon that fires huge .50 calibre rounds.

According to the defence source, the squadron received intelligence that an ISIS commander was arriving at a safe house in a village close to the Syrian border.

The source added: “The village was in the hands of ISIS gunmen so there was absolutely no chance of organising a capture mission. To do so would have been suicide.