Perspective: 'Juba the Sniper' legend haunting troops in Iraq

BAGHDAD -- In a country where rumors exist as fact, and in a war where initial reports are often wrong, there seemed to be little stopping the legend of Juba the Sniper.

Islamic militant Web sites, comics, bootleg videos and songs had, for almost two years, touted the deadly prowess of the “Qannas Baghdad,” the apocryphal insurgent sniper credited with killing scores — some say hundreds — of U.S. and Iraqi troops in every quarter of Iraq’s capital.

Like a wartime boogeyman, Juba had twice been reported captured, only to spring up again, Freddie Krueger-style, in Jihadist propaganda and U.S. military patrol briefings.

Read the rest at Stars and Stripes