#Iraq

Noori Sabeh (نوري النقاش) is a professional engraver in Iraq who has made his presence on social media with some excellent engraving work considering the lack of access to materials and tools otherwise very prevalent in Europe and North America. The majority of his work is focused on traditional wood and metal engraving of various bolt action rifles, shotguns, and handguns that customers send in. He originally started out in the jewelry business and has been engraving for several decades.

If you looked at this photograph and thought to yourself, “This looks like a 40x46mm Low Velocity grenade launcher, but it is unlike any launcher currently used by any Military/LE force”, then you’d be halfway to a solid conclusion. However if you are really into Airsoft, you’d probably instantly recognize it for what it is, a Mad Bull Airsoft grenade launcher made in Taiwan. But then what in the world is it doing on a “Real Steel” AR rifle? In Iraq?

Photos from a backyard gunsmith in Iraq are showing a myriad of customization on Kalashnikovs, Lee Enfields (No.1 SMLEs and No.4s) and Mosin Nagant s in some very interesting ways. Attempts to add picatinny rails, scopes, thumbhole stocks, forward grips, and bullpup conversions are all displayed in their full glory here. As you look through the pictures you can see the results of trial and error as the gunsmith attempts different improvisation methods, then going back and perfecting them for the next round of home manufacture. Some of the Lee Enfields have had their barrels replaced with 7.62x54Rmm PKM barrels, while others retain their .303 ones. Many appear to have Harris imitation bipods mounted to forward sling swivels as well as different scopes, to include Barska optics. Also included are SKS paint jobs, and the welding of picatinny rails to receiver covers, a product that has long been available in the United States.

Iraq may not have the best manufacturing resources among countries that produce small arms, but that hasn’t kept one Iraqi designer from trying his best to bring locally made firearms for the fight against Daesh, now coming to a climax in the ongoing battle of Mosul.

A recent news article has highlighted the efforts of a company in Oklahoma in replicating the Iraqi Tabuk service rifle, a Saddam Hussein era Iraqi Kalashnikov. The Tabuk is readily identifiable from the myriad of other Kalashnikov copies from the Yugoslavian pistol grip, the extended three vent handguard, grenade launching flip up sights, and the reinforced trunnion of an RPK receiver. In fact, if any of these reminds you of the Zastava Arms M70, then you would be correct, as the two rifles are virtually identical in terms of design. The news article further states the companies rifles were used in American Sniper because of their authentic features.

The battle for Mosul in Iraq is going on right now, being fought by Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmerga, and some Turkish elements against entrenched Daesh right now. However, there is a significant amount of international coalition SF groups that are helping these local forces call in air strikes, direct close air support, and otherwise facilitate assets that various nations are bringing to the table against Daesh.

The VHS-2 assault rifle is made in Croatia. The same people that make the HS and XDM pistols. No, not Springfield Armory but HS products.

Footage from Iraq is showing the Korean company S&T Motiv’s (previously Daewoo Precision) K2C select fire carbine being used by both Iraqi special operations troops from the Golden Brigade against the Islamic State, and by the Islamic State themselves. The Golden Brigade is one of three brigades apart of an Iraqi special operations force, very akin to the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment as opposed to a JSOC or SOCOM outfit.

The Kalashnikov platform continues to boggle the mind with the amount of practical use it has, from popping bottle caps open with a protruding metal device in front of the magazine well, to using the metal magazines as a frying pan for food over a fire. In this case, two Iraqi soldiers at what seems to be a sort of vehicle checkpoint are seen using their AKMS s  to connect two car batteries together and jump start the dead engine. They very gingerly hold the rifles while the car starts, and then remove them as soon as it gets running, good thing that there weren’t any injuries in the video. They are both using their cleaning rods to extend the connection enough so that both engines might be reached. Apart from holding the object themselves, they seem to have their wits somewhat about them, and have removed the magazines, and hopefully any rounds in the chamber.

The pictures are a couple of years old (prior 2009), but interesting nonetheless. Apparently it is a picture from a seized weapons cache in Iraq, later in the war due to the ACU helmet cover on the kevlar laying on the floor. The gas tube is completely removed so I’m pretty sure it is a bolt action. Still, it’s an SKS pistol! The guns in the crate seem to also be of varying designs, some conventional such as the PKM with polymer stock and various AK rifles as well. I can’t tell right off the bat what the compensator is, but it certainly isn’t AR based, the birdcage goes all around, and it tapers from the bottom up. I haven’t included AK modified (Peshawar or otherwise) pistols in this post because they are far too numerous to mention and are a different operating system.

Medium.com has a very interesting blog post about a Kurdish gunsmith …

Bakhtiar Sadradin Aziz makes and repairs firearms in Kurdistan. His customers include Kurdish Peshmerga Soldiers. Bakhtiar has been running the family business after his father, Sadradin, was imprisoned for 14 years by the Baathists for repairs of Peshmerga weapons. When the father was released in 2003, due to the American Invasion, he found his son, Bakhtiar, was running the shop so Sadradin retired. Bakhtiar is now training his own 17 yr old son to take over the business. Just in case something happens.

This picture of a Peshmerga fighter sporting a slick hair do and an oddly configured AK-47 with AR-15 parts and other tacticool doodads was posted on Reddit recently. It also looks like it’s missing the pistol grip and has an AR carry handle attached to the top cover. Can anyone tell which AK variant it actually is? This Frankengun makes the Bubba’d Mosin Nagant spotted in Syria a while back look like a masterpiece.

American Sniper, the Clint Eastwood biography of late Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, roused a lot of attention among Iraqi audiences, despite the subject matter of US-occupied Iraq. According to the New York Post, the film drew Iraqi cinema patrons in a big way:

Is the M16A4 worth the extra weight and length it brings? Howard of LooseRounds has weighed in with an article relating some of his experiences with the rifle. His conclusion is as follows: