Final answer:
The IRA sniper was wounded during combat, with one injury described as a long bleeding furrow on the head and another as a shot hand. These scenarios depict the dangerous and life-threatening circumstances snipers often find themselves in, highlighting their susceptibility to being targeted by enemy gunfire.
Step-by-step explanation:
The IRA sniper in "The Sniper" was wounded under intense and stressful combat conditions. Firstly, in one of the narratives, it's described how the character tied his head with a bloody scarf after being shot at. The wound was a long, bleeding furrow above his left temple, but it was deemed not fatal – "only a cut," as the character Jane mentioned.
Another snippet discusses a soldier with a shot hand, blood dripping from a ragged hole, indicating a bullet wound. Furthermore, a scenario involving narrow escapes from sniper bullets, with the character being consistently shot at while crawling back to safety, underscores the perilous environment in which snipers operate. Lastly, an allusion to a historical event is mentioned, linking Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee at the Texas School Book Depository and a trained sniper, to the assassination of President Kennedy, reflecting the lethal capability and the historical context of sniper incidents.