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Canada is not known, at least not in popular culture, for its military might. Fewer than 100,000 active personnel serve in the countrys armed forces, whose size and strength have been mocked over the years by American and Canadian commentators alike. The United States, by comparison, has about half a million active soldiers in the Army alone, and hundreds of thousands more across the other branches.

But dont let those numbers fool you.

Despite its small size, Canada is known for producing well-trained, highly skilled soldiers, who have long fought alongside American and British counterparts in major world conflicts, including the current fight against Islamic State militants.

In particular, Canada boasts some of the best snipers of any military, and the world may very well have gotten another reminder of that last week.

On Thursday, the countrys military said that a Canadian Special Operations sniper had shot an Islamic State fighter in Iraq from more than 2 miles away, purportedly breaking a world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in history, according to the Globe and Mail.

An unidentified sniper from the elite Joint Task Force 2 made the shot from a distance of 3,540 meters using a U.S.-made McMillan Tac-50 rifle, according to the Globe and Mail. The newspaper cited anonymous military sources saying that the fatal shot, made from a high-rise in Iraq, was independently verified by video and other data.

If so, the Canadian snipers shot shatters the previous world record, held by a British soldier, by a staggering 1,065 meters.

It also fits a long tradition of expert marksmanship among Canadian soldiers.

During World War I, Canadian snipers were celebrated for their deadly accuracy. The late Francis Pegahmagabow, a First Nations sniper from Ontario, was credited with 378 kills.

Outdoorsmanship played a big role in how the Canadian military selected its snipers; the country had an abundance of farmers, hunters and trappers.

More here:
Canadian sniper in Iraq makes fatal shot from 2 miles - Press Herald