#Syria

The so-called  Islamic State has released a video recently in a series of in-depth views of marksmen taking shots at Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in the vicinity of Kirkuk province in Iraq. The video is titled Arrows of the Monotheists and is essentially a propaganda and recruiting effort from the Islamic State. The majority is footage from a spotter with a camera focused on a particular target while a marksman nearby fires a well-aimed shot. Then it cuts to various scenes showing the shooters either moving into position or training to get up online. A number of the shots have been cut to show a shooter taking a shot from a staged position in the rear, to the actual shot footage, thus appearing like one take of the action. These sorts of videos first became popular in OIF with the “Juba Sniper” videos that circulated among the Iraqi insurgency.

Green lemon posted a few interesting pictures on Twitter.

This past week a Serbian product, the 40mm/6 M11 made by Yugoimport SDPR J.P. was seen in use by the Safwa Islamic Brigade & Suqur al-Shamal opposition groups in northern Aleppo. The launcher isn’t very prevalent outside of Serbia and thus it’s presence in Syria indicates a line of supply that might lead back to Serbia. The 40mm/6 M11 is essentially a copy of the South African Milkor 40x46mm Low-Velocity MGL 6 round grenade launcher developed in the 1980s. Currently Milkor still produces the MGL, licensing the launcher out to various companies across the world.

Recent media have highlighted the presence of Russian Special Operations forces in Syria, and particularly around the area of the highly contested battlefield of Palmyra. According to sources, the SF soldiers pictured aren’t the famed Spetsnaz, but instead are of the SSO, another contingent of special operations forces organized very similar to Spetsnaz units. The release of these public materials could serve a strategic purpose as these SF troops are probably a Tier Two or even Tier Three level SF asset. Thus, when looking at these materials we may come to many conclusions about their equipment and small arms, but the issue items of the Tier One guys is still kept very secret. So we might have some idea about what Russian SF troops are using, but instead might also be far off our mark when it comes down to the actual capabilities of Russia’s elite forces. One trend that looks to be evolving is the usage of suppressors on the issue 5.45x39mm Kalashnikov AK74Ms and precision rifles but also on the RPK74 Light Machine Guns also in use. PKMs mounted with optics is increasing as well, I’m sure suppressors will be the next addition. Another trend that is interesting is the dependence on U.S. or European equipment as opposed to Russian designed material. I must caution that just because we see some of this equipment doesn’t mean that it is of the original manufacturer, and may indeed be excellent copies made in Russia. This does bring into question the quality of said equipment. A prime example is of some of the EOTechs in use. Simply because it looks like an EOTech from afar, doesn’t mean it is one, and thus doesn’t mean that it might have IR capabilities or be able to maintain zero/parallax like the currently made EOTechs after their scandal with U.S. SOCOM command.

The VSK-94 is a rarely seen Russian semi-automatic precision rifle firing a 9x39mm cartridge from a heavily modified Kalashnikov receiver with an integral suppressor. The rifle was an attempt to make a cheaper version of the VSS Vintorez chambered in the same 9x39mm cartridge. Currently, only law enforcement within Russia uses it, while Russia’s Special Operations forces use the the higher quality Vintorez rifle while on operations.

Iran has announced the addition of a new small arms manufacturing facility, with the capacity to double that of current ammunition facilities. From Fars News Agency–

Malhama Tactical is a Youtube and Twitter tactical training entity that is the creation of a certain Abu Rofiq, an Uzbek who claims to have served in the Russian Airborne Forces. Rofiq speaks Russian, and all his media is also in Russian, but that doesn’t necessarily explicitly mean he was enlisted in the Russian Army. Russian is a second language to many of the Central Asian Republics, however there was a measure passed by the Russian Government that allowed foreigners to enlist. His “company” bills itself as a tactical consulting company for various groups within Syria. Specifically he allies with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formally Jabhat al-Nusra. Al-Nusra proclaimed alliances with al-Qaeda but that really appears to be a formality rather than a complete branch of the group in Syria, al-Nusra’s aims and motivations are much more Syrian focused, than al-Qaeda’s MENA and international intentions.

The Rahman Corps is a Syrian Rebel group operating in the Damascus region. It is independent of the Free Syrian Army, but is on friendly terms with the opposition group. Via the group’s Youtube channel, some videos have been released showing what appears to either a century old cannon or an improvised construction of one, fired by a lanyard, mounted on truck with a complex hydraulic assisted system. It is hard to tell at this time if it is muzzle loaded or breech loaded.

East Asia and the Middle East are full of garage gunsmiths and homemade firearms. With the current conflict in Syria and Iraq it seems like lots of homemade guns are being found on the battlefield. Some of them seem decently well made, and some just seem odd. The one below seems outright dangerous, to the shooter. Gun Youtubber MrGunsnGear recently posted on his Facebook page this gem that was found by Peshmerga forces fighting ISIS near Mosul.

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.

Photographs of the rebel group Free Syrian Army have been circulating around since September that show a group of soldiers firing what appear to be Soltam K6 120mm mortars (Israeli origin, M120 in the U.S) at enemy positions in the vicinity of Aleppo Province. The odd part about the photos is that some of the troops firing the mortars don’t appear to be FSA troops at all. They certainly aren’t Syrian, as their equipment doesn’t relate to anything the FSA is using, with Berettas in Safariland holsters (depending on unit, but can be standard within U.S forces), and Glocks in what appears to be 1957 Radar holsters (standard issue within the British Army), MSA headgear, Meindl boots, in addition to British MTP Multicam scheme in use with many international forces rather than indigenous FSA soldiers. One of the soldiers is also wearing Turkish camouflage as well. The pictures have appeared on various Turkish and Arabic news websites, all from the a Getty Images source, which also appears to have been taken by a Turkish photographer from the Anadolu agency. Alongside them seem to be normal FSA troops. They could possibly be Turkish forces, but Turkish SF has a different camouflage scheme other than Multicam. Turkey is known to be helping the FSA in a number of covert ways.

A reader of TFB who resides in rebel held Syria recently emailed us saying …

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 Russian Army will be upgrading its automatic infantry support weapons soon. The legacy 7.65x54mmR PKM belt-fed general purpose machine gun will be supplanted in the dismounted role by the PKP “Pecheneg” automatic rifle designed at the end of the 20th Century, reports ArmyRecognition.com:

Most of the media we have presented about the Terrorist group Daesh, detailing their small arms inventory, has come from the group themselves in propaganda and news reports. However recently, courtesy of VICE News, we have a completely unfiltered view from one of their own fighters, in an engagement against the Kurds. The news agency was able to obtain this footage from the helmet camera of one of the slain terrorists. It depicts a mobile element going into battle against a Kurdish YPG position in northern Syria. The truck where the fighter with the camera is in suffers a mobility kill, and the crew in the armored bucket in the back have to bail out and egress to the rear. Much can be said about the tactics of these guys that just plain suck. From rolling on the ground instead of low crawling, to not being aware of their RPG back blast area at all, to horrible communication throughout the vehicles and between the individual fighters in the back of the Mad Max like armored trucks.