<p>With 255 kills, 160 of them officially confirmed by the Pentagon, Chris Kyle, the retired Navy Seal sniper, is the deadliest marksman in US military history.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Kyle hesitated the first time he killed a person at long range with a rifle. It was a woman who was about to attack a group of US Marines with a hand grenade.<br /><br />The US Navy SEAL was overlooking an Iraqi town from a shabby building as US forces were still invading the country, before Saddam Hussain had been ousted. The Marines didn't see the woman coming.<br /><br />"Take a shot," Kyle's chief told him. Kyle stammered: "But..." "Shoot!" the chief told him again, The Daily Mail reported.<br /><br />Kyle finally pulled the trigger, the woman dropped the grenade. He shot her again as it exploded.<br /><br />But after four deployments to Iraq, he learned to stop hesitating and start shooting straight.<br /><br />The report said that during the Second Battle of Fallujah alone, when US Marines fought running battles in the streets with several thousand insurgents, he killed 40 <br />people.<br /><br />His feat blows away the previous American record of 109, set by Army Staff Sgt Adelbert F Waldron during the Vietnam war.<br /><br />Carlos Hathcock, the famed Marine sniper who was the subject of the book 'One Shot, One Kill,' killed 93 people as a long-range sniper in Vietnam.<br /><br />However, despite the mind boggling number of kills, Kyle is still far from being the deadliest marksman in the world.<br /><br />That distinction goes to Simo Hayha, a Finnish soldier who killed 542 Soviet soldiers during World War II.<br /><br />For Kyle's deadly track record as a marksman during his deployment to Ramadi, the insurgents named him 'Al-Shaitan Ramad' -- the Devil of Rahmadi -- and put a USD 20,000 bounty on his head.<br /><br />The daily said his most legendary shot came outside Sadr City in 2008 when he spotted an insurgent with a rocket launcher near an Army convoy -- 2,100 yards away.<br /><br />At that distance, 1.2 miles, he fired a shot from his .338 Lapua Magnum rifle. It struck home, knocking the man over dead.<br /><br />Kyle, who retired from the Navy after 10 years of service, is telling his remarkable story as a deadly marksman in his new book, 'American Sniper,' which hit shelves today.<br /><br />He left the service in 2009, deciding not to enlist in order to "save his marriage", he told his publisher.</p>
<p>With 255 kills, 160 of them officially confirmed by the Pentagon, Chris Kyle, the retired Navy Seal sniper, is the deadliest marksman in US military history.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Kyle hesitated the first time he killed a person at long range with a rifle. It was a woman who was about to attack a group of US Marines with a hand grenade.<br /><br />The US Navy SEAL was overlooking an Iraqi town from a shabby building as US forces were still invading the country, before Saddam Hussain had been ousted. The Marines didn't see the woman coming.<br /><br />"Take a shot," Kyle's chief told him. Kyle stammered: "But..." "Shoot!" the chief told him again, The Daily Mail reported.<br /><br />Kyle finally pulled the trigger, the woman dropped the grenade. He shot her again as it exploded.<br /><br />But after four deployments to Iraq, he learned to stop hesitating and start shooting straight.<br /><br />The report said that during the Second Battle of Fallujah alone, when US Marines fought running battles in the streets with several thousand insurgents, he killed 40 <br />people.<br /><br />His feat blows away the previous American record of 109, set by Army Staff Sgt Adelbert F Waldron during the Vietnam war.<br /><br />Carlos Hathcock, the famed Marine sniper who was the subject of the book 'One Shot, One Kill,' killed 93 people as a long-range sniper in Vietnam.<br /><br />However, despite the mind boggling number of kills, Kyle is still far from being the deadliest marksman in the world.<br /><br />That distinction goes to Simo Hayha, a Finnish soldier who killed 542 Soviet soldiers during World War II.<br /><br />For Kyle's deadly track record as a marksman during his deployment to Ramadi, the insurgents named him 'Al-Shaitan Ramad' -- the Devil of Rahmadi -- and put a USD 20,000 bounty on his head.<br /><br />The daily said his most legendary shot came outside Sadr City in 2008 when he spotted an insurgent with a rocket launcher near an Army convoy -- 2,100 yards away.<br /><br />At that distance, 1.2 miles, he fired a shot from his .338 Lapua Magnum rifle. It struck home, knocking the man over dead.<br /><br />Kyle, who retired from the Navy after 10 years of service, is telling his remarkable story as a deadly marksman in his new book, 'American Sniper,' which hit shelves today.<br /><br />He left the service in 2009, deciding not to enlist in order to "save his marriage", he told his publisher.</p>