The Syrian Civil War is many things, not least an extremely complex conflict. In this series we examine the imagery used by various groups from across Syria’s political spectrum. In the first part of the series we examined the crests Opposition-affiliated groups and organisations. If you missed the first part of the series you can find it here. In this part we will examine groups affiliated with the Assad Regime and present a statistical overview of the small arms used in their military imagery. You can find the first part of this series here.
Egypt
Podcast V26 – Part Two: The Six Day War-War of ’67: The Spine Breaker
In this article we continue our interview with Egyptian artist Galal Abdo Hashem, you can find part one of this series, here. When we reached the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition in our interview with Galal, we tried to get all the possible details we could from him. In the end, he told us that he will speak about the notable incidents as he has many stories that would take months to cover.
Podcast V26 – Part One: Galal Abdo Hashem – The Shrapnel Collector of Egypt
In our journey to uncover wartime stories from all sides during the Arab-Israeli Conflict we managed to meet Galal Abdo Hashem, an Egyptian living in his home city of Ismalia, a city that witnessed the horrors of war more than once during the 20th century. Galal Abdo Hashem is not a war veteran with military training, in fact, he never fired a single shot towards his enemies, but he decided to do something instead that gained him notoriety and his name written on Egypt’s Honor List. To this day he gives lectures, speaks with journalists and appears on TV shows to speak about his experience and journey during a time when Egypt was at war with Israel. This article is the story of one of Egypt’s civilians who, despite taking up arms to defend his homeland, decided there was another way to contribute to the war effort – art.
A Brief History of the Ramadan Cannon
The sun slips slowly and majestically behind the horizon, heralding the end of the Muslim fast. Yet another day on the Ramadan-calendar crossed out. Since everything in this day and age runs like clockwork, fasting Muslims glance impatiently at their watches and clocks spread throughout the house awaiting that exact time of the sun’s setting. Historically, however, there has been another, louder, more spectacular method of announcing ifṭār – the firing of a cannon.
Operation Balak: The IDF’s Star of David on Nazi Rifles
“All is fair in love and war” is an idiom in English that refers to the practice of otherwise questionable actions being considered acceptable under exceptional circumstances. When talking about weaponry in general, one example to illustrate the aforementioned saying would be the direct use of an enemy’s arms of war to forward one’s own agenda. Anti-Communist Afghan Mujahideen fighting their Soviet enemies with Soviet-made weaponry, Islamic State attacking regional adversaries with US M4’s and M16’s or the post-war US government employing former German and Japanese scientists and technologies for their fight against the Red Menace are all examples of this common practice. The Israeli Defense Forces‘ hexagram emblem on Nazi Mauser-manufactured Kar98k carbines is another interesting manifestation of this idiom.
Does a Sinister Symbol on a Remington Rolling Block Hint at its Role as an Executioner’s Weapon?
‘If walls could talk’ is a popular idiom to express the desire of wanting to know more about what happened in a certain place. But what if weapons could talk? What could tell us their experiences on the field of battle? There’s at least one rifle whose story would be downright horrific, a sinister engraved symbol on its receiver a faint witness of long gone atrocities.
Smuggled MG-34 Seized in a Raid by Egyptian Security Forces in Sinai
While reviewing old articles on smuggled weapons and munitions to Egypt and to Sinai specifically, I came across an article on ”ONewsAgency” published on the 16th December, 2014, about the seizure of five hundred kilograms of Bango (a type of marijuana) and a variety of small arms in “South Sinai Governate”. One of the weapons photographed was the Second World War-vintage MG-34, 7.92 × 57 mm, general purpose machine gun.
V12 Silah Report Podcast: Patreon Questions and Large ISIS Arsenal Captured
In the 12th episode of Silah Report Podcast we were joined by Adham, Vlad, Daniel, Miles, Ataka, MENA, Analyst Mick, and Abdullah Khyber. We answered four questions submitted by Patreon supporters of Silah Report and discussed an ISIS weapons and munitions cache recently captured by Iraqi security forces.
If you’d like to have your questions answered by our panel please support Silah Report on Patreon and submit questions as often as you like!
If you missed last week’s episode, you can find it here.
Silah Report Podcast V11: Training of Egyptian Conscripts, Changes Since 1973 to 2019 and More!
As the war on terror in Sinai drags on and as Egyptian police and military casualties continue to mount, Silah Report’s podcast team discussed the situation and the questions about the competency Egyptian forces on the ground and their commanders’ strategy for dealing with the continuing insurgency.
If you missed last week’s episode, you can find it here.
Silah Report Podcast V10: Missile and Drone strikes on KSA’s Oil Refineries,AK74s in Syria and More!
In the latest episode of Silah Report Podcast, we spoke about the shocking news of missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia’s oil refineries, discussing how this was possible in the first place and which players in the region may be behind it. As well as the types of drones and missiles which may have been used. We also discussed 5.45 x 39mm smalls arms in Iraq and Syria.