Juba (sniper)

Juba (Arabic: جوبا), sometimes spelled Joba, also known as Juba the Baghdad Sniper, is the pseudonym of an anonymous sniper with the Sunni insurgent group Islamic Army in Iraq involved in the Iraqi insurgency, featured in several videos released between 2005 and 2007. Juba became famous after videos showing footage of his shootings appeared online. The second of these videos shows Juba marking a tally of 37 "kills". Juba became a folk hero among many Iraqis due to his role in fighting against the American occupation of Iraq.

Juba worked in mostly Sunni parts of Iraq, specifically the Al Anbar province. Juba's videos showed real battle scenes with background nasheeds. In many videos, Juba is seen killing and wounding multiple American soldiers with what seems to be a Dragunov sniper rifle. Juba is seen wounding and killing at ranges of a few hundred meters to approximately a thousand meters in the videos, several of them involving precision shots to the head. Juba waits for U.S. soldiers to dismount, or stand up in a Humvee turret, and aims for gaps in their body armor, the lower spine, ribs, or above the chest. There have been speculations that Juba is not one person but multiple snipers working under a pseudonym. The number of kills Juba claimed has also been debated as not all were verified. The IAI statistics claims that from 2005 to 2006 (1426 AH to 1427 AH) that the sniper brigade had killed 634 American soldiers, 23 military officer, 11 American snipers and wounded 206 American soldiers. However, according to sniper expert and Vietnam War veteran, John Plaster, Juba may have killed around 143 American service members.