Footage reportedly from a nighttime Islamic State assault on Syrian regime positions at Palmyra in 2015 shows the cameraman being pinned down as accurate light machine gun fire with tracers rip through the air around him.

The rounds skim the ground, lighting it up as they pass. One thing to consider is that tracers are ordinarily loaded into belts and magazines at a rate of one tracer round to every four or ball rounds. Essentially you are only seeing a fraction of the high speed death snapping through the air around this group of dirtbags.

Tracer rounds are bullets bonded with an incendiary composition that burns brightly. They have a number of benefits on the battlefield. Tracers allow shooters to correct their point of aim as they are usually not able to see their sights in periods of darkness. They also allow shooters to mark targets for their comrades. Additionally, US troops tend to load 2-3 tracers in the bottom of each magazine to give them warning that they have depleted their ammunition and to reload before assaulting or maneuvering.

However, tracers do have a drawback. In the military the saying goes: "Tracers work both ways." This means that while you are able to see where your rounds are hitting, the enemy is also able to see where they are originating from... your position.