In this amazing 19th episode of the Silah Report Podcast, we were joined by our guest Rizgar, a European who volunteered with the Kurdish YPG in 2016. He gave us some insight on his journey from being your everyday civilian in Europe to a fighter battling beside the Kurds on the frontlines against ISIS militants. He shares with us some fantastic pictures he took over there and his experience with fellow Kurdish comrades and Western volunteers.
Craft Production
V17: Smalls Arms in Kurdistan Region and the Local Laws
In the 17th episode of our podcast, we had a new guest from the Kurdistan region who was well versed in the small arms market in the region. The host for the episode was Adham and we had Miles, Daniel, Khyber Abdullah, Mick, our patron Nate and last but not least, our guest from Kurdistan, Rasty.
Black Aluminum in Cloth: Syrian M16/M4 Fabric Wraps
A phenomenon that has been observed with YPG/YPJ Fighters in recent years has been the practice of wrapping service rifles with fitted fabric. The extent to which rifles have been fitted goes from small pieces that might just cover the magazine or handguard to full-length covers that can sometimes enclose the entire rifle. The reason behind these wraps range from a sort of camouflage to a purely aesthetic venture. In this part of a series of posts looking at the trend we will examine the wraps seen on M16/M4-pattern rifles. You can find part one of this series here.
V16: Sniper Rifles and Tactics Against IS in Syria, a SMLE in Afghanistan, and a Counterfeit Revolver in Iran
Our guest speaker and main presenter in this week’s edition of the SR podcast is Ed Nash, author of Desert Sniper. Ed took part in the fighting against the so-called Islamic State when he travelled to Syria to fight with the Syrian Democratic Forces, ending up as a precision rifleman in the campaigns of Hasakah, Shadaddi, and eventually Minbij where he ended his tour. He covers everything from the odd tactics in use with the YPG, types of precision rifles employed, and some of the bits of kit that helped him through the fighting.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Region Modified 8mm M1 Garand Rifles
Due to the local economics of supply and demand, there is often a need to convert small arms to more available calibers in areas of the world where the supply of ammunition is a constant concern or has drastically risen in price. In the case of Pakistan, we see this very clearly with the popular use of 7.92 × 57 mm ammunition (colloquially known as ‘8mm’) among converted and rechambered firearms originating from the traditional gunmaking towns in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas adjacent to the Kyber Pakhtunkhwa region on the Northwestern borders of Pakistan (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province/NWFP, or abbreviated to KPK Region). One of the most interesting of these is the 8mm M1 Garand.
A Mysterious Romanian Side-Folding AK – A Darra Special or Something Closer to Home?
What we have here is a Romanian PM md. 63/65 AKM-pattern self-loading rifle, chambered in 7.62×39mm, and dated to 1992. It looks to be in very good order, basically unused. This particular rifle is located in the United Kingdom, part of an anonymous collection and was deactivated some time between 1992 and 1994. This date range has been confirmed as the deactivation has been done to a UK specification that was phased out in mid-94 and was supplied with a certificate of deactivation. The most noteworthy thing about this rifle, which is a relatively common AK-variant to say the least, is the crude skeleton side-folding stock and mechanism that has been installed on it.
THE LEE-ENFIELD ACTION RIFLE OF THE PAK-AFGHAN REGION
The venerable Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifles were the backbone of the British Empire and indeed a mainstay of locally produced firearms in the Pak-Afghan region for decades until the advent of more modern firearms, most notably the AK-type self-loading rifle. Even though more relatively modern firearms have knocked these old-timers off their perch, original variations and copies can still be seen throughout the area in use by insurgents, militias, marksmen and occasionally even in armouries of police forces.
The 8mm Mauser AK of the Pak-Afghan Region
The infamous 7.92 × 57 mm Mauser AK-type self-loading rifle from the Pak-Afghan region, known locally as the ‘8mm AK’ and G3 in Pakistan. A handful of images have been floating around for a number of years. I have been lucky enough to inspect a few examples on both the manufacturing side and in private hands over the past few years.
Darra AKM Rifles with AR-15 Features
Daniel Hughes is a Research Assistant with Armament Research Services. He has worked on several OSINT projects examining the use of arms and munitions in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The town of Darra Adam Khel in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been involved in the craft production of firearms for over a century. The craft production that takes place in Darra provides an important source of small arms and light weapons for many regional actors. Continued monitoring of open and closed source media in the region has yielded many interesting data. One such observation is the increasing popularity of AKM-pattern self-loading rifles which imitate the appearance—and some of the features—of the 5.56 × 45 mm AR-15 self-loading rifle. These Darra ‘AKM-15’ rifles are explored below.
PKK Small Arms Captures: January-March 2019
Some interesting small arms were captured by Turkish forces from the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê or Kurdistan Workers’ Party – PKK, these caches included shoulder-fired recoilless weapons and various self-loading rifles.