Captured Jabhat Al-Nusra Administrative Documents Show Details Of Arms, Foreign Fighters

The following images were sent to me by the photographer Victor Lacroix, and show documents captured by the YPG, operating near Ras al Ein, from Jabhat al-Nusra.  It includes images from three administrative documents showing weapons distributed, a register of Syrian fighters, and a register of foreign fighters.   Full translation of these documents can be found here.

This first document contains a list of weapons, ammo, and equipment distributed to Jabhat al-Nusra fighters.  Whoever has been filling this in has been rather inconsistent with the details they are providing, with page 7 listing the exact type of weapon in the "Kind of Weapon" field, while pages 8 and 9 only lists the serial number.  It also lists a number of unusual names for the weapons, such as ashrawiya, sarookh, etc.  My translator contacted a number of former Syrian army soldiers, who told him they were mostly names used for variants of the AK-47

Ashrawiya: literally: of ten = AK-47 with the number 10 carved on its side.
Sarookh: literally: rocket =    AK-47 with a rocket-like shape carved on top of the weapon.
German: = AK-47 with a folding stock to the side (the stock is bent to the side of the weapon, not under it)
Naqeera (or maybe faqeera): very unusual name, maybe used by non-Syrians
Swaqi: very unusual name, maybe used by non-Syrians

You'll also note the first names of the men receiving the weapons as followed by names such as al-Ansari and alTunisi.  These appear to be references to where they are from, so al-Tunisi would be Tunisia, al-Ansari is a Syrian, al-Jazrawi is Iraqi, etc.  It seems likely al-Tamimi and al-Shummari refer to tribal names that extend across various borders.

The next set of documents are registers of foreign and local Jabhat al-Nusra fighters.  Translated versions of these documents can be found here

This lists the name of the member, including where they are from, the date they joined, their speciality, marital status, financial status, their health, and additional notes.  We can see there's a mix of fighters from Tunisia, Bahrain, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, with a variety of specialities from baking, car bombs, nursing, Sharia law, and media expertise.  About a quarter of the men are married, and the majority appear to have "bad" finances.

Thanks to Aaron Zelin, Pieter Van Ostaeyen, and Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi for help with this piece.

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

American Anti-Tank Missile Filmed In Syria

The following video posted on an activist channel for Talbiseh, Homs shows a very unusual projectile previously unseen in the conflict

The projectile belongs to an American M47 Dragon, a wire-guided anti-tank missile in service with the US military until 2001.  A diagram of the projectile is shown below (source) 

The video provides a close up of the markings on the projectile which provides additional information

"Octol" refers to the type of explosive used, more details of which are here.  M225 is the type of warhead, and HE refers to high explosive.  What's interesting is there's also a P/N reference, which means that with the right reference material it would be possible to track it down to it's original source.  With a history of use in Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Jordan, as well as the US, it leaves the question of the source wide open, but hopefully the P/N reference will make tracking the origin much more straight-forward.

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

Evidence Of Sophisticated IEDs Being Used By The FSA

Update July 12th The commentator Trazzer has made a very strong argument for the items shown below being standard shaped charged rather than EFPs in the comments below this article, worth checking them out.

Stratfor recently reported on claims by the Hawks Brigade of the Levant that they are now using a type of IED known as an explosively formed penetrator (EFP).  EFPs have a long history of use in a number of conflicts, and most recently have been used in Iraq to attack coaltion armoured vehicles. 

An EFP consists of a copper tube filled with explosives, with a concave copper liner over the end of the pipe, faced towards the target.  The copper tube prevents fragmentation during the explosion, and the concave copper liner focuses the blast in such a way to penetrate the armour of the target.  The below picture shows an example from Iraq:

The below diagram and animation shows how the copper liner turns into a projectile that can penetrate armour:

The following video from Deir ez-Zor in the east of Syria, near Iraq, shows EFPs now being used to construct IEDs, and is the first video evidence confirming their use in Syria:

It does seem likely that the FSA have acquired the skills to build these IEDs from insurgents in Iraq, and it confirms that Assad’s armoured vehicles are at least as vulnerable to IEDs in their outdated Russian armoured vehicles as US forces are in their more sophisticated armoured vehicles in Iraq. Update July 4th This video has been posted which shows how bombs can be created from artillery shells

At 2:50 he takes out what appears to be an IED with a inverted cone liner.  @alhazrid informs me the man in the video describes the IED as directed, and it has a cone, but doesn't mention what it's made from. Another interesting point for fans of irony, both the US and UK accused the Iranian government of providing Iraqi insurgents with the information and equipment required to build shaped charges as described above, so if true it would be rather ironic if that information has gone from Iraq to Syria so the FSA can fight Iran's close ally.

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