What to do when your sniper skills start and end at video games? If you're this Syrian rebel, you cobble together a crude laptop, hook it up to a rifle, and try to hunt Bashar Assad's forces from a safe distance.

In the video above, recently posted to LiveLeak, a young rebel runs a length of cable from what looks like an FN Herstal rifle on a tripods to a wooden-seeming box containing a small LCD display and four green knobs ringing a smaller red button. The green display shows the scene outside the cinderblock building that's serving as his sniper position, via the rifle scope. The rebel is seated maybe ten or 15 feet away on a chair, around the corner. Should his adversaries try shooting back in the direction of his fire, their bullets will miss him. (Thanks to Danger Room pal Matt Fanning for bringing this to my attention.)

Hard to say if the design is sound. The video doesn't show the rebel opening fire -- presumably via the red central button -- just focusing and shifting the scope's field of vision. But the Syrian revolution has proven to be a foundry of necessity for a DIY weapons, including a tank whose PKM gun is remotely operated with a PlayStation controller.

Even assuming the controls work as advertised, this rebel is going to want a much, much longer cord if he can't go wireless. Bullets may miss the guy. But the first artillery shell that retaliates to the threat of a sniper can probably knock those cinderblocks down on rebel and remote rifle alike. Assad's troops aren't playing video games.