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.
Here's the latest round up of weapons and equipment featured in FSA videos posted online. Earlier posts can be found here, here ,and here.
AA guns and truck mounted heavy machine guns
Not many new videos in this section, but it's interesting to note the ZU-23-2s being used to fire at ground level targets.
Aleppo - Truck mounted ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun
Unknown - Truck mounted ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun
Jarabulus, Aleppo - Truck mounted DShK
Mortars and rockets
A couple of interesting ones this time round, including a video showing a LAW rocket launcher, the supply of which was covered in a recent Reuters article, alongside what may be home made rockets. There's also an rare sighting of a more advanced anti-tank system.
Talbisah, Homs - Mortar being fired at a shabiha base
Homs - Al-Farouq Brigade - Firing mortars at a shabiha base
Unknown location - Descendants of Khalid ibn al-Walid Battalion - What appears to be homemade missiles, and a LAW
Tanks and armoured cars
As before, the FSA appears to be capturing an ever increasing number of armoured vehicles, and as I reported earlier in the week we've seen the first example of a T-series tank being used in combat by the FSA.
Rastan - Al-Farouq Brigade - 3 T-62 tanks and one armoured car (more details here)
Rastan - Al-Farouq Brigade - One tank, possibly a T-62
Andan, Aleppo - Champions Andan - T-72 tank
Homs - Umar's Free Army Battalion - Battalion formation video with a T-72 tank
Midan, Damascus - Armoured car captured from security forces
Talbiseh, Homs - A mixture of six armoured cars and BMPs captured by the FSA
Ammo, guns and other equipment
Idlib - 4 DShK machines guns, 1 mortar, 60+ mortar shells, and a handful of RPG rockets
DIY
This week we see a return of an old favourite, and a use for all those destroyed and disabled BMPs
Aleppo - A large catapult being used to launch home made explosives
Unknown location - BMP cannon mounted on the back of a truck
Following on from my last two posts on the FSA's weapons and equipment (here and here) here's a number of videos posted by opposition activists showing a variety of weapons in use by the FSA.
AA and Heavy Machine Guns
What's been interesting over the last couple of weeks is the increasing reports of helicopters being shot down by the FSA, and the various videos showing DShK machine guns being used to target helicopters. For that reason I'm going to group AA guns and heavy machine guns together, as it appears they are being used interchangeably, as the following videos will demonstrate. As noted last time a great number of the ZU-23-2 videos come from the Aleppo region, so it's unclear if they are being used by the FSA in great numbers outside of that area
Unknown location - The Free Syrian Army remanufacturing an anti-aircraft gun to attach to a truck
Aleppo - "Brigade of the North" fire at the helicopter airport "Meng" with a ZU-23-2 cannon on a truck
Mortars
One thing I've noticed this week is a big increase in the number of mortars being filmed in use, and how a number of them are smaller mortars, possibly 60mm, rather than the large 120mm mortars previously posted. Here's some examples
Deir Ez Zor - Possibly a 82mm mortar in use by the FSA
Deir Ez Zor - A smaller mortar being used by the FSA, possibly a 60mm mortar
Homs - Ansar Battalion tribute video with a 60mm mortar at 1:45
Unknown location - Fatih Sultan Mehmet battalion, affiliated to al-Faruq, using 82mm mortars
Aleppo, Hadzder - Heart of the North Battalion using 60mm mortars
Aleppo, Andan - Truck mounted mortar captured by the FSA in an ambush
Amour There's also been more reports and videos of captured armoured, and Bjørn H Jespersen has put together a useful guide to the different T-series tanks used in Syria for easy identification that worth a read.
Deir Ez Zor - One of seven T-55 tanks the FSA claim to have captured
Deir Ez Zor - More footage of the seven tanks the FSA claim to have captured
Unknown location - Captured T-62
Daraa - Armoured car captured from security forces in the city
Homs - Al Farouq Battalion with two captured army trucks and two captured BMP variants, including one BMP-1
Captured and purchased weapons and ammo
As before the FSA continue to capture and purchase weapons and ammo
Aleppo - Large selection of small arms and ammo captured from the army, including what appears to be two ZU23 barrels plus ammo
Dier Ez Zor - Ammo and tanks/artillery shells
Aleppo, Izaz - Weapons looted from the army, many AK-47s
Damascus City - The FSA shows off mortars bought from the black market with donations
Damascus, Horan - More weapons purchased with donations
DIY
Not so many DIY videos this week, and I've covered them in detail on the linked posts
Aleppo or Idlib - Free of the North Battalion manufacturing weapons (more here)
Following my earlier post, The Increasingly Well Armed FSA, And Other Oddities, I've been on the look out for videos that give an indication of how well armed the FSA. Aside from the endless defection and brigade formation videos, which usually feature the same small arms, there's been an increase in videos showing truck mounted heavy machine guns and AA guns. Here's a selection of videos posted over the last couple of weeks
Unknown location - Truck mounted DShK heavy machine gun
Al Bab, Aleppo - Truck mounted unknown heavy machine gun
Jabel Zawieh, Idlib - Truck mounted gun, possibly a single barreled ZU-23-2 variant
Idlib - Truck mounted DShK with metal shield
Update June 30th@ginnysacksmole tells me the above individual shown operating the DShK above apparently shot down the helicopter shown lower down in this post, and received a reward of 50,000.00 SYP (781.86USD), according to reports from activists.
Hamidia, Homs - Truck mounted DShk heavy machine gun
Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib - One mounted AA gun, possibly a ZU-23 variant, and a mounted heavy machine gun with a metal shield
Deir ez Zor - Alsaitat Battalion - Truck mounted DShK
As you can see, the majority appear to be DShK heavy machine gun, with only one video (an M2 Browning) of a non-Russian made heavy machine gun posted online as far as I'm aware.
The next set of videos shows the second most prevalent heavy weapon I've come across, AA guns.
Mount Simon, North of Aleppo - Freedom Martyrs Brigade in a captured army base. ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun
Rural Aleppo - Atareb Battalion - Captured 57 mm AZP S-60 and ammo
Qabtane Ej Jebel, Aleppo - ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun firing at helicopter
Although these videos are in Aleppo there have been reports of AA guns captured in other areas of Syria, and as there's also videos of the previously mentioned DShK heavy machine guns being used to fire at helicopters, which might explain where there's started to be reports of downed Syrian helicopters, including this one in Idlib
On top of the captured AA guns there's also been a number of videos showing captured armoured vehicles in a number of different locations.
Jabal Az Zawija, Idlib - Sham Falcons Brigade - Two captured military trucks and an unknown tank
Idlib - Captured BMP-1
Idlib - Captured BMP, unknown model.
I've yet to see any videos of these vehicles in combat, but it does show there's an increasing amount of armour falling into the hands of the FSA, and with an increasing amount of AA guns also falling into their hands they might actually be able to use it with the risk of it being destroyed from the air.
There's also been more videos of weapons, ammo, and equipment captured by the FSA.
Unknown - FSA capturing a truck supposedly loaded with weapons and ammo, unknown contents
Deir Al-Zour - Around 100 assault rifles, likely AK-47s, and a few RPG launchers captured along with ammo
Sheikh Barakat, Aleppo - At 3:20 crates at the captured radio station, unknown contents
So it seems that there's a steady flow of small arms and ammo from captured checkpoints and bases. This influx of small arms is clearly reflected in the following videos, which demonstrate the sort of numbers the FSA can now muster.
Maerdebseh, Idlib - Around 50 FSA fighters armed with a variety of light arms storm the Maerdebseh checkpoint, capturing a tank
Douma, Damascus - A column of dozens of FSA fighters armed with a variety of light arms traveling in a convoy that includes heavy machine guns or AA guns mounted on trucks
Derbers, Deir-Ez Zor - A variety of videos demonstrating the strength and equipment of local forces
Rastan – Formation of the al-Hamza Brigade, demonstrating the increasing size of local FSA forces
Update June 30th Hama Echo has noted in the above video that at 0:47s in the above video you can on the right hand side of the screen a man in blue trousers holding a Strela-2 (SA-7) surface to air missile. Rastan, where this video was filmed, is about 10km away from the missile base that defected on June 10th, from which it is has been reported a number of Stela-2's were looted.
One group that has caught my attention is the Al-Ansar brigade that operates in Old Homs and Talbiseh, who according to activists are a civilian group who have captured a number of heavier weapons, as demonstrated below.
Baba Amr, Homs - Al-Ansar brigade using a truck mounted B-10 Recoilless rifle to attack a check point
Talbisheh, Homs - Al-Ansar Battalion using 120mm mortars.
And this post would of course not be complete with a couple of examples of DIY weapons.
Home made mortar system
Home made rocket
In my mind the home made rocket seems rather impractical; even if you could construct it with a guidance system that gave it at least some chance of hitting a useful target it seems unlikely they could be manufactured easily enough, and in a large enough quantity to be of any use. The mortars on the other hand could actually be of some use as it seems like quite a simple system to manufacture rounds for.
As far as I am aware all these videos were filmed in the last two weeks, and I think really shows how well equipped the FSA are getting, especially if you compare it to previous months. There's pretty strong evidence that the Syrian government is losing control of much of the Aleppo region, including losing military bases, which means more equipment for the FSA in a region where they also have the advantage of a fairly open border with Turkey.
As always, I'm on the look out for any new footage of weapons and equipment captured or in use by the FSA, and if you think I've made any errors, or can provide any more information about the videos I've posted please let me know.
Update June 30thBH Jespersen has posted about a very interesting rocket launcher spotted in one of the videos coming out of Syria, that possibly shows a Belgian made BL-83 Blindicide (tank killer) rocket launcher. Along with FN FAL rifles and the previously mentioned M2 Browning that brings the total of different Belgian origin weapons to 3.
One thing that seems apparent to anyone following the Syrian conflict over the past few weeks is how it appears the FSA are being increasingly well equipped. It seems the FSA have started to go beyond the machine guns, AK-47s, and RPGs that make up the majority of their equipment and have begun to acquire greater quantities of weapons, and a greater variety. Despite reports of Qatar and Saudi Arabia supplying weapons to the FSA, and high level talks in Washington, it does appear that they've been doing quite well with getting their hands on weapons without their help.
To begin with, let's look at the more standard equipment many of the FSA are equipped with, where it that coming from? The Global Post reported in two excellent articles, "You will never guess who arms the rebels" and "Syria’s rebels learn the value of a prisoner", the FSA members they interviewed have gain the majority of arms from the purchasing them from corrupt members of the Syrian army, funding those purchases by ransoming captured soldiers:
Fatahallah estimated that his village purchased 40 percent of their weapons from the regime. Prisoner exchanges have so far contributed almost $80,000 toward weapons purchases, he said. And they obtain an additional 50 percent of their weapons during battle. The remaining 10 percent are donated and smuggled from outside the country, or are purchased from private merchants, mostly from Iraq.
In other areas it seems the black market plays a big role. Javier Espinosa recently Tweeted this during his time in Idlib
local commander told me that they have bought more than 1,500 new shells for RPGs in Idlib,very effective because tanks are very old #Syria
Some videos show weapons and ammo that have apparently been captured from Assad's forces, this video from Latamiyah, Hama, shows a cargo of RPG launchers and ammo captured by FSA fighters
This video from al-Atarab, Aleppo, shows arms captured from a police station
And here we see a wide selection of ammo, weapons, and armour captured from a checkpoint in Deir Ezzor
It also appears that more recently the FSA have been capturing heavier weapons. These two videos show the Ansar Battalion using large 120mm mortars
Update June 18th I've also been sent another video of a B-10 in action west of Baba Amr
Update June 21st This video from Jisr ash-Shugur, Idlib shows a PG-7VR warhead loaded into the RPG launcher on the right hand side of the video, capable of penetrating the armour on most, if not all, of Assad's armoured vehicles
This video shows more captured equipment, most notably a captured anti-aircraft gun, which were often mounted to trucks in the Libyan Civil War
Update June 21st This video from Deir ez-Zor shows a group in possession of a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun to the left, and a truck mounted heavy machine gun to the right
Now while it's arguable whether or not the above weapons could have been in fact smuggled into the country by Saudi Arabia/Qatar/America etc, the next videos show items that are somewhat harder to smuggle across borders.
In this video we see FSA fighters from Latakia capturing a BMP
This video from a Damascus FSA battalion apparently shows one destroyed armoured vehicles, along with a Shilka and BMP which were apparently captured
Now it's one thing to say a tank has been captured, but another to see it being driven off, something these two videos show. First from Homs
And this video of a captured BMP driving around the Hama countryside
Update June 18th This news report also shows more captured vehicles, including at least one fully operational tank
What's interesting to me about these videos is the FSA feel confident enough to drive these vehicles out in the open when there's helicopters more than capable enough of destroying these vehicles. Maybe that has something to do with captured AA guns and the recent AA missile base defection which supposedly gave the FSA access to a large number of SA-7 shoulder launched missiles. It should be noted that despite claims the SA-7s were looted from the base I've yet to see them in any videos, or any helicopters shot down by them.
In both Rastan and Talbiseh, destroyed Syrian tanks and armored personnel carriers remained on the streets – including one near Talbiseh that remained in the median of the highway.
“We captured two armored personnel carriers and used them before the government destroyed them with helicopters,” Najjar said, adding that the cannons and heavy machine guns salvaged from some of the destroyed APCs would be mounted on rebel pickup trucks.
Tlass, who is based in Rastan, said the group had seized tanks from the Syrian military, and on Saturday, Farouq fighters in Qusayr sent footage to the Al Jazeera television network that showed them in possession of a tank and captured anti-aircraft weaponry. Najjar said that Farouq’s fighters in Talbiseh had managed to capture large amounts of ammunition in the offensive there, and were in possession of anti-tank rockets bought from weapons smugglers and captured from the military.
For those FSA members not lucky enough to have access to 1500 RPG rounds and BMPs improvisation is the name of the game. As I've previously posted, IEDs have played a large part in certain areas, especially Idlib, and as this video shows they are getting bigger as time goes on
There's also been recent reports in the press of remote controlled trucks and cars being used, which may in part explain the sudden upsurge in supposed "suicide bombings". This video from April shows a car equipped with remote controls
A video of remote controlled bombs in action was available on Youtube, but has since been removed.
Other vehicle modifications have also been made to assist the FSA, including a number of armoured cars. This video apparently leaked from Assad's forces show a truck that has been converted into an armoured car, including firing ports, and armoured wheels
In this video we see an armoured car being put together in Homs
And this picture shows a finished creation
Of course, they still have a while to go until they beat the "Libyan Killdozer"
This video from Al Jazerea Arabic shows a few interesting vehicles, one which appears to have metal shielding mounted in front of a heavy machine gun, and another which has a heavy machine gun mounted on the back of a truck, as well as another appearance of an AA gun
On the stranger end of the scale there's been a number of items posted, such as this DShK heavy machine gun, possibly salvaged from a T-55 or T-62, mounted on a trolley
Or this partly built remote control car bomb used to attack checkpoints
There's also this rather unsafe looking homemade rocket, which seems to have a specially shaped head
Update June 21st The above video might relate to these following four videos which appear to be some sort of unguided long range rocket artillery
Update June 21st This video shows fuse lit homemade explosive filled bottles being launched at Assad's army using a oversized slingshot
And finally, not everyone who makes stuff from scratch for the FSA is building weapons, like this tailor from the Khalidiya neighbour of Homs making uniforms for the FSA
