Towards the end of May, a new DIY weapon began to appear in Syria, dubbed the "Hell Cannon" by the Syrian opposition. The warhead was a propane gas cylinder loaded with explosives, and since May it's become an increasingly popular weapon among the opposition, with multiple videos of them shown in action being posted online.
Following the success of the Hell Cannon it appears members of Liwa Ahrar Sorya (Free Men of Syria Brigade) have decided to make an even more powerful version, dubbed the Sayidna Omar Gun, referring to Omar Bin AlKhattab, the second Caliph). The following video was posted online a couple of days ago, showing Colonel Aqidi, a senior member of the FSA, being shown the opposition's latest innovation in DIY weapon technology
This was then followed by a second video giving a clearer view of the munition
It's claimed that the weapon is 4 meters long, weighs 250kg, with 120kg of TNT loaded into the warhead, with a range of 500-3500m. This next video gives a clear view of the weapon being fired, along with the launching platform
The launch platform has been welded to the bucket of a digger, providing it with a great deal of stability, although it's possibly this is a temporary solution before a launch platform is built from scratch for the munition. This video was reportedly filmed in Zahra, in the west of Aleppo, which would put a number of military bases in range of the weapon. A fourth video shows a close up of the launch platform
It would appear one advantage of welded it to the bucket is being able to use the digger to angle the launch platform, something that might save time when setting up the weapon, and probably makes loading the weapon less difficult.
Occasionally I've come across items that appears to be some sort of unexploded ordnance (UXO) that I've been unable to identify at the time. Sometimes it's because they are damaged beyond recognition, or they are badly filmed, or they are just weird. In the weird category was this video from Daraya, south-west Damascus, filmed on January 4th 2013
It shows what is supposedly some type of rocket or missile embedded in the ground, supposedly fired by Syrian government forces. What's odd is it doesn't appear to match any design of rocket or missile I could find, and seemed as if it could be a DIY weapon. It certainly didn't match any of the DIY rockets I'd seen used by the opposition, and I even suspected it could have been some random piece of junk.
Six months later and we now have this video from Adra, north-east of Damascus, of what's claimed to be a "chemical" missile
This appears to be the same design as the missile in the January video, and I'll just explain how I came to that conclusion. It's really all about the tail fin, shown below
January Video
June Video
The one thing that stands out is the tail ring is missing a section in the June video, but I suspect this might be due to damage. You'll note the tail fins are welded to the body of the rocket/missile in the same way, and have been cut in an usually right-angled fashion. In the below picture I've taken the tail fin from each video and lined them up against each other, to check the proportion of the tail fin to the tail ring
It should be noted the below half is angled towards the camera, so while it looks like it's slightly longer you'll note the base of the tail fin is the same distance apart. I've marked the below version of the picture to make it clearer
So it appears they share identical dimensions. This isn't the only similarity, the rocket motor also appears to be identical in both videos
January video
June video
You'll also note in the above pictures that in the position of the bolt or screw between the tail fins in the January video there's a hole in the June video, possibly that once held the same sort of bolt or screw.
So it seems clear these are the same design, but the questions remains what exactly they are? It doesn't appear to match any design of rocket or missile I can find, which would imply it's possibly a DIY rocket, or something locally produced that hasn't been seen before. I'd even consider it's the same rocket in both video they've filmed twice after doing some additional damage, but so far it remains a mystery munition.
Throughout the conflict in Syria there's been a variety of new DIY weapons appearing every so often, from DIY catapults in the early days of the conflict to more recently DIY grenade launchers.
Recently a new weapon has appeared that offers a very different level of firepower compared to the majority of DIY weapons seen so far
This is what's been dubbed as the "Hell Cannon" by the group who built it, Ahrar al-Shamal (not to be confused with Ahrar al-Sham), and it's something they seem particularly proud of, even producing this handy spec sheet
Here's a translation
Name: Hell Function: Explosive barrel Cannon Specifications:It can fire more than fifteen types of shells that weigh more than forty kilograms. It also has two locally-made rocket launchers (Rohingya). Range: 1.5 kilometers. Effectiveness: Up to 200 square meters. Projectile: Propane gas cylinder. Cost of the shell: 15000 Syrian Pounds. Country of Origin: Syria Manufacture: Ahrar Al-Shamal Battalions.
You'll note the projectile is a propane gas cylinder, which would make this the most powerful non-IED DIY weapon used in the conflict so far. Ahrar al-Shamal has produced this promotional video that shows the Hell Cannon being constructed
In the above video we see a short segment where the explosive fill for the gas cylinders is being produced, and we get a good shot of one of the components, 33% ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a popular choice for powerful DIY explosives
It actually appears there's more than one Hell Cannon, with at least two versions pictured below
You'll note on the rear of the Hell Cannon there's actually two positions for DIY rockets to be launched from. According to the Hell Cannon's manufacturers, the rockets are know at Rohingya, which happens to be the name of a Muslim minority people facing persecution in Mynamar.
As impressive as the Hell Cannon looks it's not worth much if it's not used in combat, and recent footage from the Brick Factory and Youth Camp battles (more details of which can be found here) shows the Hell Cannon in action. In the case of the Youth Camp battle recent footage show that the Youth Camp has now been overrun by opposition forces, so it's likely Hell Cannon will now be focused on the Brick Factory.
During the Syrian conflict certain weapons have become mainstays for the Syrian opposition. DIY mortars, rockets, pipe-bombs, and catapults are now regularly featured in videos posted by Syrian opposition groups, and recently one new DIY weapon has emerged that seems to be becoming a new favourite among Syrian opposition fighters
This video shows a DIY grenade launcher, a modified shotgun, in action. A cup has been added to the end of the shotgun, into which pipe-bombs are loaded, lit, and then launched using a modified shotgun cartridge. This gives the pipe-bomb a much greater range, without the need to carry around giant slingshots, as demonstrated below
As this following video demonstrates the DIY grenade launcher isn't always the most reliable of weapon, and a misfire can require a rapid response
Despite the risks, an increasing number of videos from across the country have been posted showing various version of this new DIY weapon being used, and it's now fair to say that these have joined DIY rockets, mortars, pipe-bombs, and catapults as one of the more popular DIY weapons used by the opposition.
Recently I've been writing about items recovered from the scenes of two alleged chemical attacks in Sheikh Maqsoud, Aleppo and Saraqeb, Idlib, which appear to link the two attacks. These containers shown, below in photographs from Sheikh Maqsoud and videos from Saraqeb appear to be an as yet unidentified gas grenade
I've now been sent the following photograph from Jeffry Ruigendijk, which is a cropped image of a Jabhat al-Nusra fighter in the Serekaniye/Ras al Ayn region of Syria (Update higher resolution images can be now found here)
Here's a close up of the grenade
You'll note it shares the features of the items recovered in Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb, including the offset holes on the body of the grenade, the distinctive ridge, and a matching fuze. It's worth noting in the Sheikh Maqsoud photograph the fly-off levers have been attached back-to-front, causing them to stand out more than they should, instead of flush with the fuze.
So, what does this tell us about the device? It seems clear now that the devices used are some sort of gas grenade, and it seems unlikely sarin and other deadly chemical weapons would make an appropriate fill for a hand thrown weapon, but it's still unclear exactly what this grenade contains. As yet there's been no positive ID on the specific type of grenade, and Richard Engel of NBC claimed it could possibly be an Indian crowd control grenade after a visit to Saraqeb, without providing the specific type, so I think that's a bit of a shaky conclusion.
However, it does seem increasingly clear that the attacks in Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb may not have involved the more powerful chemical weapons such as sarin or VX, but possibly some sort of as yet unidentified crowd control substance, which in the right circumstances can prove to be deadly.
I should start this post by saying that in the past I've found much of what's been posted on Global Research to be far to conspiratorial for my liking, and in many cases just plain nonsense (for example this piece), so when I say this piece is a good round up of reports of chemical weapon use in Syria, it's not something I say lightly.
As this post is a partly response to the article Was the Syria Chemical Weapons Probe “Torpedoed” by the West?, it's best to start giving that a read. While I may not agree with some of the conclusion the article draws, particularly the last paragraph before the postscript, it's a good summary of many of the reports on chemical weapon use in Syria. However, there's a few points I'd like to comment and expand on in relation to three attacks I've written about on this blog in the past.
Khan Al-Assal
The author takes a look at many of the claims surrounding this attack, and one thing I'd like to focus on the claims of the government written about by Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News
Syria believes the chemical involved was a relatively small amount of chlorine gas, namely CL17 which was dissolved into saline solution in a home-made rocket. Two separate military sources have confirmed to Channel 4 News that it was a rocket and not a shell.
Syrian sources say the missile was fired from an area close to Al-Bab which they say has been in the control of the Islamist group Al-Nusra Front for some time and that it hit a military checkpoint on the edge of Khan al-Assal to the west of Aleppo.
So note the following characteristics
- A "relatively small amount of chlorine gas" which was "dissolved into saline solution".
- A "home-made rocket"
- Fired from an area "close to Al-Bab" hitting "a military checkpoint on the edge of Khan al-Assal to the west of Aleppo", distance of around 47km.
It's also worth noting the causalities, with various reports put the number killed as around 25-30, with dozens injured, as well as reports of the smell of chlorine at the scene of the attack.
The reports of chlorine being used in the attack have led a number of people to draw a connection between that and the capture of a chlorine-gas manufacturing plant near Aleppo which is now reportedly under the control of Jabhat al-Nusra, and chlorine gas attacks by insurgents in Iraq from 2006 onwards.
My problem with that claim is if you look at the types of attacks in Iraq and the number of causalities that theory seems to fall apart. First consider that according to Alex Thomson's report the chlorine was dissolved into a saline solution carried by a homemade rocket. In Iraq chlorine tanks (and in some cases tankers) were loaded onto vehicles packed with explosives with many of the causalities coming from the initial explosion rather than exposure to chlorine gas. Very few of these attacks resulted in the same numbers of deaths and injuries as the Khan Al-Assal attack, so the question is whether or not it's reasonable that a single DIY rocket loaded with chlorine dissolved in saline could reasonably be expect to cause anywhere near the same amount of injuries as trucks laden with explosives and chlorine gas canisters.
There's also the question of the rocket used. The vast majority of DIY rockets I've seen in Syria look something like this:
These rockets have far too small a payload (around 13 pounds) and would have trouble reaching targets 4km away, let alone 47km. There have been far rarer videos of a larger DIY rocket, shown below
In the video it's claimed the rocket can reach 60km away, but I would always take these sorts of claims coming from the opposition with a pinch of salt, especially when you consider the range of other similarly sized rockets, which are helpfully listed here. You would have to believe this DIY rocket had a comparable range to larger professionally manufactured rockets for it to reach Khan Al-Assal from Al-Bab, as well as the rocket being able to deliver enough saline dissolved chlorine using an unknown dispersal method to cause the causalities reported. I'd also have to ask how the government knew the chlorine has been dissolved in a saline solution.
Another thing to note is that if a DIY rocket was used, and it was carrying a warhead containing saline dissolved chlorine rather than explosives you'd expect there would be some sort of remains that could have been recovered from the scene of the attack, yet there's never been any images of that. As far as I'm aware there's also been very few, if any, images from the scene of the attack, and considering how quickly Syrian State TV appears on the scene after many of these attacks it seems odd there's never been any footage produce from the scene in this instance (although I'd be happily proven wrong in that regard).
Now this isn't to say I'm 100% certain chlorine was or wasn't used, but just to highlight a number of key questions and problems if that's the final story from the government. If the government had said this was a vehicle loaded with chlorine that was detonated in Khan Al-Assal then I'd have a much easier time believing their story, but I just don't think a DIY rocket with a saline dissolved chlorine warhead fired from 47km away is a reasonable explanation for the number of causalities seen.
Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb
I've touched on this subject in a previous post, highlighting the links between the two attacks, but I'd like to look at it in more detail, and examine what has been said about both attacks.
Aleppo province: Two children aged 1 and 2 years old were martyred and a woman was killed by wounds. They were killed by 2 bombs dropped by a military helicopter on their house in the al-Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, based on activists from the neighbourhood. The casualties' neighbours reported to the Syrian Observatory that they heard a helicopter at dawn and later heard two explosions, after heading to the house they found some of the residents unconscious and others killed. 16 were wounded by poisonous gases and were transported to the A'frin city, medical sources reported that those injured suffered hallucinations, severe vomiting, nose bleeding and eye burning, one of which lost eye sight. The Syrian Observatory calls upon the United Nations and the Red Cross to immediately send committees for treating the injuries and discovering the nature of the gases, that has been reportedly used in al-Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood.
After completing his prayers around 1 a.m. on April 13, Yasser fell asleep with his wife, two young children, and sister, who all shared a bed in a modest home in Sheikh Maqsood, the Kurdish-majority frontline neighborhood in Aleppo.
“I heard something explode on the roof. I thought it was a shell and called my brother for help,” he said. His eldest son, one and a half years old, started mumbling and was soon hyperventilating.
The baby, only four months old, was also struggling. “I knew then that there were chemicals in the air and I told everyone to get out. I screamed for help and saw my neighbors come in,” Yasser said, recounting the horror he experienced while recuperating at a hospital in Afrin, a town north of Aleppo.
Patients exhibited hyper-salivation, increased secretions, eye pain, muscle spasms and seizures, and loss of consciousness, Dr. Hassan said. Volunteers who helped rescue Yasser’s family and medical staff who came in contact with the victims all exhibited the same symptoms.
Unusually items were recovered from the scene of the attack and photographed
The victims of the attack were also filmed
The second video was part of a report by the Times which left CBRNe World (a respected magazine providing "those tasked with defending against CBRN and IED threats with the essential practical, scientific and political information") unimpressed
The Times newspaper broke the story with grand words about their ‘investigation’ by Anthony Loyd. It takes a brave journalist to work in a warzone, but last time we checked Mr Loyd is neither a doctor or an expert on chemical attacks. Other than a building hit by a munition, he was mainly shown video footage of the medical aftermath- which he (and others) have decided is convincing because it has people frothing at the mouth. The other ‘key evidence’ is that Doctors have said they used atropine and it had an immediate effect.
So why are we so skeptical? Well let’s start with the foaming. Its incredibly bright white and even compared to the discoloured, flecked and bubbled nature one more usually associates with mouth foaming. Its also the first time I have seen the word ‘foaming’ used as a symptom. Salivation, drooling yes but not foaming. A cursory check of CDC, NLM, or indeed any of a range of good medical sources would have backed this up. Even comparison with the victims of Tokyo.
What can we infer from the ‘evidence’? Nothing. No bodies, no medical evidence, no pictures made public of the ‘canister’ and no explanation for such an unusual and frankly ineffectual use of chemical agent. As for responding to atropine quickly - anyone given atropine reacts quickly! Heart rates will slow, sweating reduce or stop, jitters and shaking will be calmed. Its effectiveness at this doesn’t mean the person was exposed to nerve agents. The description of the attack is unusual, both the level of physical damage (a torn plastic awning) and the description of its functioning.
Could it be real - possibly. Could it be misdiagnosed and something other than sarin - possibly, could it be a fake - possibly. Has it advanced our understanding or confidence - not a single iota.
Now let's look at the attack in Saraqeb on April 29th. In this attack a number of videos were posted showing the victims of the attack, as well as the video that begins with what's claimed to be an item dropped from a helicopter falling through the skies
What's very interesting is the item shown in the following two videos, which is claimed to be the weapon used in the attack
As I detailed in my earlier post this is an exact match for one of the two items recovered from the scene of the earlier Sheikh Maqsoud attack, and having spent a lot of time investigating what these items are I believe they are almost certainly some sort of gas grenade. I believe in the following photograph they've attempt to reassemble the top of the grenade with the fly-off lever, but have actually put the lever on back-to-front
It seems incredibly unlikely sarin gas, or any lethal chemical weapon, would be delivered from a helicopter inside a gas grenade. That leaves two questions, what type of grenade is this, and what was inside it? Despite asking multiple experts in various related fields, those two answers have elluded us, so if anyone is able to answer those questions it might bring some clarity to the issue of chemical weapon use in Syria.
I'd also like to say to anyone who plans to investigate this container that it's about getting a perfect match, not something that "looks a bit like it". I've seen plenty of those, and that's the problem, it's the perfect match that's alluding us.
This following video, posted online yesterday, shows what are claimed to be attacks on Hezbollah positions in Syria and Lebanon by Syrian opposition members
This would obviously be quite significant if true, as it would mean members of the Syrian opposition are now attacking positions inside Lebanon. There's a certain amount of additional information that can be gleaned from this video. At the start we see a collection of 107mm rockets, generally used by rocket launchers such as the Type-63
After that, we see one of the 107mm rockets loaded into a DIY launching platform of questionable accuracy
Next we see a 12 barrel DIY rocket launcher mounted on the back of a truck
Here we see S-5 rockets being loaded into the missile tubes
And finally rockets being fired
S-5 rockets are not designed to be surface-to-surface weapons, and are usually fired from rocket pods attached to helicopters or jets, so their accuracy is questionable when launched like this.
What's not stated in the video is the name of the group involved in the attack, but fortunately the DIY multiple rocket launcher appears to be a unique design, and the same one appears in other videos filmed in the same region
You'll also note that the person operating the launcher in all four videos is the same guy, with a very distinctive arm-less jacket. The above videos belong to the Omar al-Farouq brigade, although I'm unclear if they are related to the Farouq Brigades.
Some of you may not know I've been putting together a collection of Youtube playlists, in an attempt to categorise the many videos coming out of Syria. One list I've been working on is DIY weapons in Syria, and having reached the 200 video limit for Youtube playlists I've now split them into separate categories:
Back in November I wrote about unexploded cluster bomblets being repurposed as warheads for DIY rockets, and now we have this video showing bomblets being used as DIY mortar bombs
Although the video is quite dark we do get a good look at some of the DIY mortar bombs
Here we can clearly see that PTAB 2.5m cluster bomblets have been modified with new fuzes and new tail fins. This is the only example I've come across of this type of DIY mortar bomb, so it's unclear if this is just an experiment. It is of course extremely dangerous to handle unexploded cluster bomblets, and it seems these opposition members have managed to find a very risky source of new explosives.
In early January I wrote about French SNEB 68mm rockets that had been shown on Syrian State TV and filmed being used with various DIY launchers. As I pointed out, these types of rockets had a history of being used in the Libyan conflict, and were part of a shipment of arms from Libya destined for Syria stopped by the Lebanese authorities.
Now we have this video that takes things one step further
What we have here is a French MATRA rocket pod, designed to fire 68mm SNEB rockets, with this photograph from AFP appearing to show another example of the same type of rocket pod. Examples of this same type of rocket pod mounted on vehicles in Libya can be seen here, and here in a very informative post about the SNEB rockets in Libya.
As with the SNEB 68mm rockets I wrote about earlier the rocket pods also showed up on the Lutfallah 2 cargo ship that was stopped by Lebanese authorities (source)
The Syrian air force does have a small number of French SA-342 Gazelle helicopters, but as yet the opposition has not overrun any of the locations where these are based, nor has their been footage of these types of rocket launchers being captured by the opposition, so it leaves open the possibility that these are part of one of the rumoured cargoes from Libya that made it into opposition hands.
Today I've been pointed to this collection of photographs showing a DIY rocket launching system reportedly seized by the Syrian Army from the Syria opposition in Kafersoosseh. What's interesting about this rocket launcher is the ammunition it uses, pictured below
The rocket, also featured in this Syrian State TV report, is a French made 68mm SNEB rocket, usually fired from rocket pods attached to a variety of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, but not the Russia/Soviet aircraft generally used by the Syrian Air Force.
This therefore begs the question of the possible source for these rockets. There have been other recent sightings of these weapons, including this video and this video, and as far as I'm aware there's been no earlier sightings before November 2012, which might imply these are something they've acquired recently. The Syrian Air Force does have French made SA-342 Gazelle helicopters so there's a chance they might have acquired these rockets during there recent advances across the country, but there's been no video evidence of that being the case. These rockets are used quite widely in the region so the black-market is another possibility, and I'd assume (maybe wrongly) if a regional power was going to send arms to Syria they'd send something that didn't require the construction of a DIY weapons systems to launch it inaccurately at the enemy.
One other possible source is Libya. In the first half of 2012 a shipment of arms from Libya allegedly destined for Syria on the Lutfallah 2 cargo ship was intercepted by the Lebanese Army, and this blog has a series of photographs taken of the cargo. Among the wide variety of munitions there's crates containing the same type of 68mm rockets pictured above
With rumours and reports of other cargo vessels bringing weapons to Syria from Libya it seems that this could be another possible source of the rockets.
Recently Foreign Policy published a piece I had written for them on DIY weapons used in the Syrian conflict, How to Build an Army in Your Basement, which demonstrates some of the more common DIY weapons I've come across being used in Syria. In this post I'll take a look at some of the more unique weapons that I couldn't include in the article, starting first with this remote control bomb
Here we have shells being prepared for a DIY cannon, as well as a video of it being fired
This video shows a DIY launcher for S5 rockets, commonly fired from missile pods attached to helicopters (and less commonly rocket pods welded to trucks)
Here's a selection of IEDs designed to destroy "T-82" tanks, which would be an impressive feat indeed, as they don't exist
More remote control weapons, this time a machine gun with it's own video camera targeting system
Here the cannon from a BMP-1 has been mounted onto a truck, possibly preserving the auto-loader system
And here's a somewhat less advance version of the above
And finally we have another DIY weapon used by Assad's force, the IRAM, written about at length by CJ Chivers here
Over the past month we've seen large numbers of cluster bombs being dropped by the Syrian Air Force across Syria, leaving unexploded bomblets across the country. These are extremely unsafe and leave a long term UXO threat that one group in Syria has taken a rather novel approach to removing. In this following video filmed in Hama from one of the groups that make up Al-Farouq Brigade we see something quite remarkable, cluster bomblets being repurposed as warheads for DIY rockets.
At the start of the video we see the bomblets being plucked from the ground, itself extremely dangerous, and the fuze being removed. We then see the rocket workshop with rows of these bomblets on the ground, all with the fuzes removed, and we're then shown a bomblet having it's tail fins removed, and replaced with a fitting that then allows it to be screwed into the rocket. A newly manufactured fuze is screwed into the bomlet/warhead, completing the rocket.
What this video shows isn't just simply the bomblets being used as warheads, but that there's an entire manufacturing process behind this, with new fuzes being made, the new fitting being designed and manufactured specifically for this task, and the rockets being designed around carrying the bomblets as a warhead. It really shows how sophisticated the manufacturing process for making these DIY weapons has become.
