This morning in Beirut, Lebanon was far from normal as the streets turned into a warzone and clashes erupted taking the lives of many people, injuring even more and forcing hundreds of families to flee their homes. We examine the causes and look at some of the small arms seen on Beirut’s streets.
AKS-74U
Uzbek Fighters Visiting The Pak-Afghan Tribal-Area Markets
A long-lost video filmed by fighters of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, once thought lost to us who’ve been following the arms trade in the Pak-Afghan region over the last decade and longer, has recently resurfaced after a few years of it being pushed off the world-wide-web and into the deep reaches of the online archives. It was once again shared with us by our colleague Mick who runs an OSINT feed, much to our jubilation.
Kalashnikov & G3 Modifications on the Yemeni Market
This guest article was contributed by a Yemeni enthusiast who was able to show us some of the more unique and sometimes peculiar modifications that are made to small arms in Yemen. All photographs are locally sourced unless otherwise cited.
Generally, there is only one city that is known to modify small arms extensively in Yemen: Dhamar, in North Yemen (currently Houthi-controlled). Many of these modifications are done to shorten barrels, install side-folding stocks, or ‘modernise’ older rifles.
Winter Drills of Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan regularly publishes news on their official website. We collected photos from various winter exercises and drills and depicting small arms in the hands of Kazakh soldiers. The units in the photos represent various branches of this country’s military.
I hope you enjoyed this set of photos. Let us know in the comments section what interesting piece of gear have you noticed.
Kazakh Armed Forces Preparing for a Military Parade
Various branches of Kazakh Armed Forces are preparing for the military parade which will be held on May 9, 2017. The parade is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Kazakh Armed Forces. Although there was no new firearm spotted (yet), it is still interesting to take a look at some of them in the hands of Kazakh military personnel.
In the above picture, the special forces units carry Beretta ARX 160 rifles chambered in 7.62x39mm, which also feeds from AKM pattern magazines. They also have EOTech 512 series reflex sights and GLX160 grenade launchers mounted on the rifles.
Other than mentioned firearms, the rest (majority) of the soldiers taking part in the parade are equipped with AK-74 and AK-74M rifles.
Interesting to note how the weapons from the ’70s are still capable and are the main weapons of many armies. Also, newer weapon systems find their way into the arsenals blending with existing ones. In that sense, it was a wise choice made by Beretta to not only chamber their ARX160 rifle in 7.62x39mm caliber, but also design it to take AK magazines. As you can see that configuration allows countries like Kazakistan to adopt modern rifles without any trouble concerning logistics, compatibility and interchangeability.
If anything small arms related appears during the actual parade, we’ll post about it here on Silah Report.