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Details emerge on DShK Mounted Motorcycle

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Numerous photographs of DShK mounted motorcycle “Technicals” have emerged from Syria, most extensively being shared on The Firearm Blog through this initial post of an amateur video, in addition to this one of a more detailed look through a so-called Islamic State’s Amaq propaganda video. We get a good idea of the weapon in action, but recently a photograph has emerged that shows the system in a transport mode on the motorcycle.

Notice how the bipod legs fold onto the back rack of the motorcycle while the Chinese 12.7x108mm Type 87 is pointed to the rear to be transported easier. Now, it would appear that any driver on the motorcycle would have to push the machine gun to the left or right while he is driving it

U.S. M16A4 Reportedly Among Iranian Protests

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A Twitter account by the name of Tehran. azady/@Gloomily8 (Free Tehran) has posted two posts and accompanying photographs on their page depicting what appears to be an FN Herstal, former U.S. Government 5.56x45mm M16A4 Service Rifle. It is not known or confirmed if the image is actually from Tehran for that matter, but a cursory Google Image Search revealed this Twitter account appears to have been the first online poster of this particular photograph. It would also appear that these photographs are actually screenshots from a motion picture, due to the apparent movement of the light source.

Neither post makes much mention of the weapon and is more concentrated on what is going to be happening or will be planned to happen in the future in regards to the protests.

Notice the SKU imprint-

It would appear that this M16A4 is most likely diverted from U.S. Foreign Military Sales to Iraq. What could possibly confirm this is the design of the handguard. We know it is an M16A4 due to the M1913 Picatinny Rail a part of the upper receiver, of which an “A2” carrying handle is fastened to. What is being left out however, is the design of the handguard. If it is a Knight’s Armament “A4” handguard, it would be a very rare sight indeed. But most likely it is an “A2” style with the circular handguards and vertical vent ports. The “Hybrid” M16A4/A2 rifles were previously sold to the Iraqi Army-

And were subsequently seen/captured by the so-called Islamic State-

Source- Conflict Armament Research Report
Source- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2749197/ISIS-arming-US-military-hardware-wage-jihad-Middle-East-seizing-weapons-Syrian-rebels-Iraqi-soldiers.html
Source- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2749197/ISIS-arming-US-military-hardware-wage-jihad-Middle-East-seizing-weapons-Syrian-rebels-Iraqi-soldiers.html

It should be noted that M16A4s are in service in Afghanistan with the Ministry of the Interior, in addition to M4/M4A1s are in service with numerous Afghan forces as well. But the amount in service in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be proportional to the amount of M16A4s with the Iraqi Army, or circulating on the Iraqi black market.

Source- https://www.khaama.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Afghan-special-forces.jpg

Diamond Arms Company of Darra Adam Khel

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Darra Adam Khel is a town in Pakistan where the trade of many locals is the manufacturing of firearms and ammunition. It is normally hard to find information concerning any new guns of the local masters. However, some of these shops started using the Internet as a marketing tool and are now presented in social … Read more

Suppressed Tariq Handgun

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This image appeared on a recent propaganda video with images attributed to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), or an Al Queda affiliate group. Among a collection of weapons seized by HTS from a Daesh cache is what appears to be a suppressed Iraqi Tariq handgun. The location of the seizure was in Idlib. The Tariq is an Iraqi … Read more

The “Carlo” of Palestine

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A fatal stoning attack against a civilian car and its driver at the Jewish New Year eve, September 13th 2015, marked the semiofficial beginning of the “Third Intifada”, also known as the “Knife Intifada” or “Stabbing Intifada” or as more accurately could be could the “Individuals’ Intifada”. Unlike previous rounds of violence led by major terror groups like Hamas or militia groups associated with the Palestinian Authority, the “Individuals’ Intifada” attacks are almost exclusively done by lone wolfs or at most pairs of attackers, unlinked to any political or armed group. Mostly those attacks committed by young men and women are motived by social media networks.

The tools of those attacks are opportunistic by nature: knives, stones, vehicle-ramming attack etc. One of those tools is the subject of this article, the Carlo sub-machinegun. The Carlo (كارلو) is a homemade sub-machine gun slightly modeled and resembling the Swedish Carl Gustav M/45 (كارلوجستاف) – a well-known sub-machinegun in the Arab world with licensed produced by Egypt under the name ‘Port-Said’ and later under ‘Akaba’ & ‘Kara’ as the simplified versions.

As a sidenote the similarity in names and appearance between the real Carl Gustav M/45 and its watered down copy create great confusion among Israeli news organizations commonly mistakably identify and report a Carlo as factory made M/45. One news outlet even reported that the Sarona-market attack terrorist’s weapon of choice was a ‘recoilless rifle’! Clearly, the reporter copy-pasted from the first item Google had to offer when searching ‘Carl Gustav’ and came up with one of the recoilless rifles under the name of ‘Carl Gustav’.       

History

Israeli police first encountered the gun at the beginning of the 2000’s in the hands of Arabs criminals in the West Bank as a self-defense gun and for celebratory gunfire. The gun, its manufacturing, and usage weren’t on the police high priority list as the phenomena seemed contained within the West Bank and as an inner Arab problem. Police operations at the West Bank also fall in the thick border line between the civilian police and the Israel Security Agency (‘Shin Bet’) areas of jurisdiction. Up until the latest Intifada, there was a minimal effort of both organizations to cooperate.

Several shooting attacks, the most notable is the June 8th 2016 attack at the Tel Aviv Sarona market where two gunmen armed with Carlos murdered four diners proved the guns efficiency at very short range attacks against unarmored people despite being inaccurate and unreliable (one of the shooters at the Sarona market attack was even caught on camera angrily throwing his Carlo after it jammed after only a few rounds).

Characteristics   

The common feature all known Carlos share is the ammunition, all known guns are chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum, which is the by far the most common pistol cartridge in Israel and used by all branches of the military, law enforce agencies, government institutions, security, private security companies and private gun owners.

The magazines used are mostly Uzi 25 rounds magazines, inserted to a magazine well in front of the pistol grip. Pistols grips appear to be high quality factory made durable plastic M16 pistol grips as well as some M16 telescopic buttstocks when the guns are stocked. The barrels are smoothbore, usually very short, barrels which are not much more than regular steel pipes.

All Carlos are full auto only fired from an open bolt, ejection port is locate on the top side of the gun and a short charging handle is locate at the gun’s right side and it reciprocating when firing. The question of why have a right side charging handle for a gun mostly used as a machine pistol? A right-handed charging port will gain no value of a charging handle at the right side he can’t easily charge with or clearing jams without buttstock and handgrip.

Since the gun’s ejection port on top a charging handle and its slot cutout could easily place left side enabling the shooter reciprocate the bolt with left hand while holding the gun right-handed. No clear answer, the first option is by trying to leech of the M/45 popularity the makers of the Carlo also copied the location of the handle scarifies functionality in order to resemble the recognized M/45.

Second option is that machine pistol concealed under a coat is best placed left of the body in order to pull it quickly (by a right-handed), having a left side handle will poke the user side so right side handle is preferable. Another source of speculations is what appear to be sort of rectangular upper hunch on the top rear part of the gun which is quite common for the higher end Carlos. Its purpose is unknown, it raised a bit the rear sight but noting that required such large protrusion. It maybe housing of some sort of crude delayed blowback mechanism, probably leaf spring, used to lower the fire rate of fire and make it more controllable gun.

Yoel M. is a contributing writer for Silah Report, and is a firearms enthusiast based out of Israel. His first report on S.R. was about the Israeli “Hitchhiker” magazine.

If you enjoy our work here at Silah Report please consider supporting us on Patreon!

Trijicon RCO Mounted Directly to Taliban AKM

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Mirwais Afghan published this on his Twitter feed earlier, of the Taliban deputy district chief for the Chaperhar district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. He was recently killed by a U.S. airstrike.  His AKM features a Trijicon RCO with what appears to be directly mounted to the receiver cover of the rifle, possibly via a rudimentary method of welding or otherwise non-standard mounting procedure.

Of course, if this is the case, accuracy will most likely suffer greatly because of the severe vibrations of the receiver cover during the course of fire. Maintaining zero will be next to impossible. But was a status piece for a deputy district chief, it will certainly get the point across.

Sudanese AR10 in the wild, Yemen edition

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This photograph was recently found on social media and features a local Yemeni man posing with an 7.62x51mm NATO AR10 next to his friend with what appears to be a modified 7.62x39mm RPK (due to the compensator) mounted with a 45 round magazine. The AR10 in question appears to be one of the largest contracts that Armlite produced of AR10s, which was the Sudanese contract of approximately 2500 rifles in the 1950s. This inference is taken from the proximity of Sudan to Yemen, so it must be stated that this is only a guess as to it’s origins and not a complete conclusion. If we could have seen the rear sight, that would remove all doubt, depending on whether or not the graduations are in Arabic numerals.

This is a little bit about it from Wikipedia-

Firearms historians have separated AR-10 production under the A.I. license into at least three basic identifiable versions, along with various sporting, carbine, and other experimental designs and calibers. The three main variants have been termed the Sudanese model, the Transitional, and the Portuguese model AR-10. A.I. built all of these rifles, beginning with the Sudanese model AR-10. The Sudanese version derives its name from the sale of approximately 2,500 AR-10 rifles of to the government of Sudan in 1958. The Sudanese model was equipped with a very lightweight, fluted steel barrel fitted with a trim, prong-style flash suppressor, a bayonet lug, lightweight fiberglass furniture, and sight graduations in Arabic.[21][22] The Sudanese model weighed only 3.3 kg (7.3 lb) with an empty magazine.[21] The price, including cleaning kit and four magazines, was US $225 per rifle.[23] All AR-10s, whether produced by ArmaLite or by A.I., used the same Stoner-designed 20-round lightweight aluminum ‘waffle’ magazine with pressed-in, corrugated sides, intended to be discarded in combat once emptied.[24]

This particular rifle appears to be in excellent condition considering that it is most likely 60 years old and has existed in a very rough part of the world when it comes to firearms care and maintenance. The young man looks to have affixed a canvas sling to the rifle, in addition to embedding a circular metal piece in the stock, also wrapping something around the buttstock by the rear sight and charging handle.

Weight 3.29–4.05 kg (7.25–8.9 lb) w/o magazine
Length 1,050 mm (41.3 in)
Barrel length 528 mm (20.8 in)
Cartridge 7.62×51mm NATO

.308 Winchester
Action Gas-operated, rotating bolt
Rate of fire 700 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity 820 m/s (2,690 ft/s)
Effective firing range 600m/656yd (ca 700m/765 1/2yds with A.I. 3.6× telescopic sight)
Feed system 20-round detachable box magazine
Sights Adjustable aperture rear sight, fixed post front sight

 

 

CZ Scorpion in use by Afghan Commandos

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This photograph appeared very recently on Afghan social media pages, showing two ANA Commandos in desert Tiger Stripe camouflage uniforms and most interestingly a 9x19mm CZ Scorpion submachine gun with corresponding magazine pouches. The submachine gun has a number of accessories mounted to the M1913 Picatinny rails, such as the AN/PEQ-2 ATPIAL at the 12 o’clock position, what appear to be two sets of lights at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions, and what might be an Aimpoint M62 CCO red dot optic. The entire package was given a decent camouflage application that wasn’t applied to the spare magazines.

Judging from the amount of accessories, the lack of camouflaging spare magazines, and the overall presence of a submachine gun in an environment where it would not be very effective, my initial thoughts are that the ANA Commando who is armed with it, is a commander who is carrying the Scorpion as a status symbol. He isn’t actually engaging Taliban with it on combat patrols, but instead allows the weapon to signify his rank. The follow on question however, should be how it and the spare magazines got to the ANA. It would seem highly doubtful that it came through a U.S. supply line due to resources directed towards the ANA are already limited and at that are usually not afforded to such ineffective submachine guns in the battlefield that the ANA and Taliban often find themselves arranged in.

More Kalashnikov Nomenclature Charts In Arabic

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Earlier on Silah Report we showcased a number of Kalashnikov and small arms nomenclature and terminology charts in use by Iraqi small arms traders and enthusiasts. Since then we’ve gathered some more material, this time much more Kalashnikov centric. These charts continue to show perceptions of the rifles in use throughout the region and what is available. Although we have similar charts in the United States the unfortunate reality is that many of those charts are tailored to the Kalashnikov civilian market. By observing what Iraqis, Syrians, or Yemenis are concerned with identifying, we can gain a better perspective on what rifles are in the region that people want to know about.

 

Commander Shafi’s AKSU

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Earlier we covered the significance of the AKSU in the hands of Rashid Dustom’s security detail, and especially with one of his favored guards. In this example, we have another case of the AKSU being utilized as a status symbol. These photographs are a memorial to Hazara Commander Shafi who was commemorated and memorialized between 2:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon, Friday, Sombole 5 1395 After Hijra (subsequently after Jummah Prayer that day as well). This would be August 26, 2016 in the Gregorian year. The photo above is advertising that the venue would be in West Kabul along an address on Martyer’s Road. The occasion is that it is the 20 year anniversary of his death in what would appear to be 1996. Very little information is available on the English internet but from the date of his death in 1996, of the year of the Taliban taking over Kabul, this commander was possibly killed while fighting the Taliban. Thus, in a post-OEF setting, it would appear to make sense that Hazaras would be celebrating the life of a famous Hazara who was fighting the ideologically same Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan that exists today.

From the original Dari-

به مناسبت بیستمین سالگرد شهادت

زمان: روز جمعه، ۵ سنبله ۱۳۹۵، ساعت ۲:۳۰ تا ۴:۳۰ بعد از ظهر

مکان: جاده شهید مزاری، گولایی مهتاب قلعه، تالار بهشت زندگی از طرف جمعی از جوانان غرب کابل

Similar with Dustom and Osama bin Laden, the symbolism of the AKSU (note especially the 45 round magazine) with this commander is especially evident through the photograph chosen to represent his life at an anniversary of his death. There might be multiple photographs taken of him but yet this one, with an AKSU was chosen. We don’t know when this was taken, but we are taking a chance that it might be after the Soviet withdraw due to the fact that many of the major players fighting each other in the 1990s were lower level commanders in the 1980s with the exception of such examples of Massoud and Hekmatyar of course. Note that this commander could have just had easily carried an AKMS that fits a similar profile of the AKSU but he didn’t.