A video appearing to show a Free Syrian Army sniper narrowly avoiding death went viral on Friday, as the country’s deadly 23-month-old conflict continues.
In the video, uploaded anonymously to video sharing website Liveleak, the sniper fires several shots through a whole in a wall for approximately 30 seconds, while fellow fighters shout “Allahu Akbar” repeatedly. He then bends down and moves slightly to the right. That’s when a counter-sniper fires a shot that comes just inches away from taking him out.
The shocked sniper retreats to a passageway, as another soldier whispers, “Allahu Akbar.”
Another decidedly more graphic viral clip uploaded this week to Liveleak shows a Syrian sniper apparently being shot in the head. Again, his fellow soldiers chant “Allahu Akbar” as gunshots sound around them.
The videos provide an uncensored look at the intensifying violence in Syria. A car bomb detonated at the Assad government’s political headquarters in Damascus earlier this week, near the Russian embassy. The attack reportedly caused more than 200 injuries and killed more than 50 people.
Russia this week blamed the United States for failing to agree to condemn the attack as a member of the U.N. Security Council.
“We and other delegations agreed to that language, but we also thought it should be accompanied by language about the rest of the violence ongoing in Syria yesterday and recent weeks, and it should have a second paragraph,” a U.S. State Department representative told the press. “The Russians were unwilling to include that second paragraph.”
Watch (Warning: Graphic content):