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

Syrian State TV Lies About Turks In Tremseh

In an article in today's New York Times a reference was made to claims on Syrian State TV that Turkish fighters were involved in fighting in Tremseh, site of a recent alleged massacre

State television also broadcast pictures of a roomful of weapons that it said had been captured from the town, the inventory mostly underscoring just what a crude and simple arsenal the opposition uses. It included 54 guns, 9 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 5,000 cartridges, 25 satellite telephones and 24 mortars, the latter looking as if they had been welded by hand.

The broadcast also showed the identification card of what it said was a Turkish fighter in the group, and a captured man named Abdelsalem Darwish said there had been a Turkish fighter and some Libyans there, as well as money and arms from Turkey.

Activist THE_47th posted a screenshot of the ID card as it was shown on Syrian State TV

Now the card has a few features that suggest the individual isn't Turkish.  First the name isn't a typically Turkish name, and Hama is mentioned on the card, which would make sense as the name at the top, Islahiye, is the location of a major Syrian refugee camp.  It also happens to look nothing like a Turkish ID card, for example (source)

You can contact the author on Twitter @Brown_Moses or email brownmoses@gmail.com

Failed Russian Missile Test Spotted Across The Middle East

UPDATE 4 - MSNBC's Cosmic Log noted this about the spiral pattern

At the time, NBC News space analyst James Oberg said he had indications that the Topol's "third-stage spin is a 'feature,' not a malfunction, and may be associated with guidance, or decoy deploy, or enhancing hardness against U.S. boost-phase antimissile weapons."

UPDATE 3 - The Russian's have declared the launch a great success

The Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation have conducted another successful test of the “Topol” Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, this time from the firing ground at "Kapustin Yar" in Astrakhan in Southern Russia.

The exercise saw the missile accurately hit its target on the firing range "Sary-Shagan" in Kazakhstan.

The test was conducted to confirm the stability of the basic performance characteristics of this class of missile reported the Ministry of Defense.

The ministry representatives added that all of the objectives of the test launch were met in full. In particular, it was possible to obtain information that will be used in the future to develop the means to overcome missile defense systems.

UPDATE 2 - It seems like the path of the missile started in southwest Russia, and headed southwest towards Israel and Jodran, with reports of it being spotted in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Israel and Jordan.  It seems likely it would have been spotted in northern Iraq as  well, but no reports of that as yet.  It was reported in January that Russia would be testing "70 new missile systems" in 2012 at the Kapustin Yar Missile Test Range in southwest Russia. 

UPDATE - Ynet has reported the following

Russia's Defense Ministry says the Russian army successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Topol missile was fired at 9:39 Moscow time, according to a statement published by the Novosti news agency. (Ynet) 

Around 7pm BST reports started to come in from Syria that helicopters had started spraying white smoke/chemicals across cities in Syria, with activists posting videos from across Syria:

 

Then to add to the confusion Israelis began to call in UFO sightings

Hundreds of Israelis nationwide flooded police hotlines Thursday evening with reports about seeing an unidentified flying object in the nation's skies.

A prominent Israeli astronomer said the object flew above Lebanese territory and is not a meteor. The UFO was also clearly visible in Palestinian territories. A similar sighting in Norway three years ago turned out to be a failed missile test.

This video shows the above mentioned sighting over Norway

This video of tonight's event also shows a spiraling pattern at around 24 seconds in

So it seems like it could be a missile test.  It's also interesting to note it's been reported as being spotted far and wide, with this video apparently from Azerbaijan:

And the same spiral pattern filmed in Armenia:

And another from Armenia

If you've spotted any other videos from countries around that region let me know on Twitter @brown_moses