ISIS Weapons - A ten-foot sniper rifle!

LTC Stephen C. Here's my go at an answer, sir.
First issue is the reliability of the Daily Mail, which is something like the National Enquirer, but for our brothers across the pond. However, there are plenty of reliable sources documenting home-made weapons in the Syria/Iraq/ISIS conflict. http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/02/diy-weapons-of-the-syrian-rebels/100461/

Next issue, is the usability of such a weapon. A lot of the objections I saw in this thread, were along the lines of, "what the heck would you do with it?" I won't call myself an expert in any sense of the word, but I have been following this conflict for a while. Many areas of the conflict have degraded into a WW1 style stalemate, but instead of a 10 yard wide no mans land, there is a few hundred yards or more between lines. Both sides being lodged in masonry structures instead of trenches. This situation creates a need for such a weapon. https://medium.com/war-is-boring/on-the-lonely-iraq-syria-border-snipers-battle-for-a-strategic-road-f57983f89420 Here is an article on it, along with a photo of a homemade Kurdish sniper rifle. And another, https://medium.com/war-is-boring/this-probably-isnt-the-woman-in-charge-of-defending-kobane-b970163f7e6 I can definitely see the desire for a weapon that can punch through masonry, and if it were being used as an anti-material weapon, wouldn't have to be as accurate as a "sniper rifle."

I figure the weapon is real, and serves a purpose. Is it being use for propaganda? Yes. How effective or safe is it? It looks way to poorly built to be very effective. And I definitely wouldn't put MY face next to that thing and touch it off!

I also believe that 1LT Sandy Annala identified the donor weapon for this abomination!

SSgt (Join to see), I saw your comments about a new issue weapon in discussion with Capt Richard I P.. What are your thoughts on this thing? Bogus? A hunk of junk or the real deal?

To me it looks quite simply like they pulled one of the guns off a ZSU and modified it to make this photograph. Seeing that it has no mobility & limited utility without a turret I would have to agree with the previous responses that it is nothing more than a showpiece, but it has the desired propaganda effect.

Definately a "show piece". Looks like they simply took a 23 mm MG and modified it to shoot one round at a time. The Bipod looks jury rigged and there is no optics to speak of. A competent weapons handler could probably use it as a supressive weapon, but in that configuration I dont see it as anything more than something to hit a large soft skinned vehicle or punch a hole in a structure. Meanwhile a REAL sniper could give whoever is firing this thing an extra asshole in the middle of his forehead using the average sniper rifle.
Marine GySgt Carlos Hathcock did use an M2 50 Cal with a sight of his on design to score kills in Vietnam, but IIRC it was done from a firebase in a static mode he carried a Winchester Model 70 (.30-06) in the field.

I would love to say something clever and funny but all I got is.....WOW. HA HA HA HA HA

I would say it's impressive. If the accuracy is anything worth mentioning and if it really is armor piercing. Have you seen any video on this? I went to your link and all I saw was photos. I'm about to google it now.