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In their battle with US-led troops in Marjah, the Taliban seem to have traded up from their characteristically shoddy marksmen to skilled snipers who are taking a toll. Sniper fire, rarely seen in more than eight years of fighting in Afghanistan, has killed one Marine and struck four others in their five-day struggle to gain ground in Marjah, the New York Times reports.

One sniper killed an Afghan soldier Monday with a single shot to the neck fired from 500 to 700 yards away, and almost every US and Afghan soldier in Marjah reports harrowing near-misses with bullets that hit beside their faces or just overhead.
(Read more sniper stories.)