Sky News Arabic Misidentifies Weapons As SA-24 MANPADS

A number of people have sent me this video from Sky News Arabic, showing what they claim to be "AS-24 MANPADS", by which I assume they mean SA-24 MANPADS (Man-portable air-defense systems) , describing them as "heat seeking missiles"

Now as followers of my blog will know I'm very interested in videos that show MANPADS, especially SA-24s, the most advanced system used by the Syrian army.  The problem with this video is what they are showing is definitely not a SA-24.  To begin with here's a reference picture of a complete SA-24, plus it's missiles

From the "missiles" shown on the video we can see they don't belong to an SA-24, and weapon itself seems far too thick.  As I highlighted in this post about SA-7s in the hands of the opposition, SA series missile tubes tend to come in pairs in a very particular kind of crate, and the single weapon shown is in the wrong kind of crate.

So what is it?  The projectiles appear to be the same type used by the SPG-9 recoilless gun, and this image gives a fairly clear view of the weapon

Source

In this picture from the Sky News Arabic video we get a show of the weapon from the top and rear end of the barrel

And a close up

This appears to show the black strap and what I believe is the sight of the SPG-9, and in my mind clearly shows this is not an SA-24 as claimed.  SPG-9s are now a fairly common sight in the conflict, in particular in and around Aleppo, so this sighting really isn't very exciting, and an SPG-9 is certainly no threat whatsoever to any aircraft.

It's very important when reporting on weapon sightings in Syria to be sure of what you are actually seeing.  The opposition often misidentifies weapons, be it accidentally through ignorance, or a purposeful attempt to deceive, and we've often seen L-39s described as MiGs, or a whole variety of small arms described as AK-47s.  While this might not seem like a big issue it does confuse matters, and when the opposition gets their hands on a working SA-24 that's very significant, so it pays to be 100% sure.

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You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

The DIY Weapons Of The Syrian Opposition

One increasingly common sight in the Syrian conflict are DIY weapons manufactured and used by the Syrian opposition.  CJ Chivers has recently written two fantastic articles on the subject detailing four examples; truck mounted guns and DIY artillery in part one, and mortars and rockets in part two.  Here I hope to give examples of some of the other DIY weapons I've discovered on my regular trawls through Syrian opposition Youtube channels.

Pipe Bombs

In the above video we see opposition fighters using what is becoming a popular DIY weapon, pipe bombs, simple metal tubes filled with explosives ignited by a simple fuse.  In the following video we see how unexploded bombs (in this case an OFAB) are used as the source of the explosives for this weapon

There's also been several example of the pipe bombs being used in conjunction with slingshots to send them even further

How effect and accurate this is seems pretty questionable, but the use of slingshots like this has been spotted in a number of locations, so it seems a popular combination.

Rockets

CJ Chivers covers the production of rockets in great detail in his previously mentioned article, but what I'd like to highlight is how these are becoming an increasingly common sight in Syria, in particular Aleppo, such as these rockets recently used to attack the infantry school

Or this attack on a checkpoint in Aleppo

BMP Turrets

In the above video the Salman Al Farisi brigade show off a BMP turret they've attached to a trailer, something some of you might remember being done in the Libyan Civil War, as shown below

Rifle Grenades

This video demonstrates the more sophisticated end of Syrian opposition weapon manufacturing, showing rifle grenades being manufactured in a machine shop, then demonstrated.

Recoilless Rifles

Again, another example of a machine shop being used to manufacture a weapon and ammo, this time a DIY recoilless rifle.  Judging by the amount the barrel jumps when it's fired it's questionable how accurate this is, but it's certainly got a hell of a kick to it.

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You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com