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Improvised Replica Firearms from the West Bank

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In my previous article, we examined the Palestinian homemade Carlo submachine gun in use in the West Bank.

This article will examine the design and use of improvised firearms among Palestinians in the West Bank, that are otherwise known as “Replica” Carlo’s due to their similarity in appearance to the M4s and M16 rifles in use throughout Isreal that the designs are replicating. The majority of these weapons are 9x19mm NATO, fully automatic only, magazine fed, open bolt designs that are improvised from underground manufacturers that use machinery and materials purchased on the black market or outright stolen. Due to the variance in production and origins, there is no set standard of appearance for these weapons. Rather there is a general consensus that the appearance is identical to an M4 or M16 from afar, but that there are significant differences between individual models.

Motives for Producing Replicas and the Cultural Context

Availability

The prime reason to manufacture the Carlo is to resemble as closely as possible an M-16 or M-4 is the availability of furniture and magazines in Israel and the West Bank. Both guns were and still are a major part of the Israeli armament, used by the IDF, police, civil guard etc… Because of this availability of parts, Armalite based designs are favored when theft becomes an option.

From a manufacturing point of view, it makes sense to design your gun to match the existing furniture and magazines already available than to manufacture them along with the gun.

Status and Prestige

Guns have a significant role in the Arab tradition, centuries of existence in lawless regions made it essential to own weapons for self-defense and as a deterrence against other tribes who were also armed themselves with whatever they could get their hands on.

Although civilian gun ownership is largely restricted and banned by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority many Arab families in the West Bank and Israel are determined to keep their arsenals and enlarge them as much as possible.

Alongside the practicality of owning a gun the guns are symbols of status and wealth. A family or an individual that can afford high-end weapons rather than a homemade one enjoy prestige over those who compromise with the local workshop products.

Acquiring a real military grade firearm might be expensive and the common garden variety Carlos are too widespread. The Carlo replicas are a way to bridge that gap, have a more expensive and awe-inducing gun without the cost of acquiring the M4 that the replica is based on.

Imitating Popular Palestinian Figures

Many in the Arab population view the terror organizations and terrorists as freedom fighters and role models, naturally, there are those who want to imitate these heroes and want to have their guns be as identical to those who they admire. If the genuine guns and ammo are out of reach then the replicas become the alternative, relatively cheap and available supplies of ammunition to practice and show off. It is then easy to understand why some workshops making the replicas make great efforts to produce almost identical copies.

Infiltration

It has been speculated that the M4 replicas could be used for terror attacks against Israeli civilians or IDF soldiers. Due to the apparent shape of the replicas being similar to the M16 service rifle used by the IDF. This will confuse soldiers and security guards, mistaking the identity of terrorists as IDF soldiers, making them hesitate to shoot.

A fair theory, however, none of the individuals caught with these replicas has ever been caught with an IDF uniform to match the gun. Currently, the records show that after numerous attacks done by Carlo wielding terrorists none were carrying any replicas. All of the photos released by IDF and police spokesmen show a regular Carlos.

Stolen or Lost Weapons and Magazines

An obvious source for both guns and their magazines are various stocks of small arms already existing in Israel. IDF, police, border guards, private security, armed civilians and many other groups are armed with M16s and M4s. This creates an abundance of stock from which guns and magazines can be acquired, by searching IDF training areas or breaking into a police officer’s home for example.

Commercial market

Several Israeli companies, such as FAB and CAA, known in the U.S. commercial gun market for their products, are also producing and selling M16 and M4 furniture in Israel. Many IDF soldiers individually choose to upgrade their weapons at their own expense. Such equipment is sold regularly and without any background checks and it stands to reason that some of the replicas are using such legally purchased furniture.

Paintball and Airsoft Replicas

There were some on Israeli gun web forums who speculate that paintball and airsoft replicas could be the source for the Carlos replicas’ receivers.

Indeed such guns could be cannibalized to provide the Carlo replica receivers.

The 9x19mm NATO ammunition produces less pressure than intermedium cartridges do so the light structure of the paintball and airsoft might withstand the additional pressure.

However, thought technical plausible, photos taken of captured Carlos or those surface in the Arab social media don’t indicate that paintball and airsoft are used.

The replicas’ ‘receivers’ all appear to be workshop made with all the typical welding seams, rivets and out of proportions dimensions.

Embedded Magazine

Curious readers might wonder how open bolt 9x19mm submachine guns are fed with 5.56x45mm NATO STANAG magazines.

The answer is simple, the craftsmen making the guns mimic the real guns embed pistol or Uzi 9x19mm magazine inside the real STANG magazines.

Similar to Matryoshka dolls, these magazines are inside of the weapon with few exterior modifications to the STANG magazine.

Those rivets hold the inner magazine in place.

Outside of the weapon the inner magazine is revealed protruding out of the STANAG housing magazine.

Such arrangement of small caliber magazine housed inside bigger caliber magazine shell is unusual but not unique, for example, the Philippines Armscor M16 22 is a 22LR semi-auto rifle dressed as an M16A1 with a matching STANAG size magazines containing 22LR magazines inside

Yassin RPG – The Underground RPG of Gaza

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Due to the Arab-Israeli conflict in Palestine, Hamas with its military wing al-Qassam brigades has developed their own tools of war in order to preserve self-sufficiency in order to not be affected by the blockade made on Gaza strip.

This article will spotlight on one of the more interesting craft produced rocket launchers in Gaza , which is literally underground since their production facilities are protected in underground bunkers from IDF air raids and artillery strikes.
It is designed and manufactured by Hamas, but they distribute the launchers to other resistance troops working in Gaza, including Fatah and the PFLP (Popular Front for Liberating Palestine).

History

The weapon is named after Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and the spiritual leader of Hamas who was assassinated by Hellfire missiles shot from an Israeli AH-64 Apache Helicopter gunship on March 22, 2004, at the age of 67.

It was designed by Adnan al-Ghoul who was also assassinated by an Israeli air strike on October 21st, 2004.

Characteristics

The Yassin RPG is a unique design that resembles the RPG-2 combined with RPG-7 with some improvised design features, From RPG-2 it took the launching tube design and the warhead external shape and the rocket motor which are very simple, but to improve the performance they added some features from the RPG-7 such as the nozzle at the launcher’s rear to deflect recoil generated by launching the rocket, they also added a rocket booster to be attached to the propelled grenade to extend it’s range, and the internal shaped charge of the warhead is enhanced as well.

The manufacturing process occurs in underground workshops using ordinary shop tools, but the conception and engineering of the weapon seem to have a high degree of sophistication and professionalism given the lack of technology of the design.

In Action
According to the continuous improvements of armor in Israeli armored vehicles, the RPG is believed to be not effective against them. However, Saladin brigades (the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committee in Gaza) claimed to destroy a Merkava Mk.3 MBT by targeting a weak point of the tank. Yet, the weapon is very effective against brick fortifications and soft-skinned armor as it can penetrate a 21 cm steel plate from 150 meters.

Specifications 

Model : Yassin RPG

Designer : Adnan al-Ghoul

Type : Anti-Tank, Anti-Personnel

Place of Origin : Gaza, Palestine

Manufacturer: al-Qassam brigades, R&D unit

In Service: 2004 – Current

Weight : 7 kg (15 lbs)

Length : 95 cm (37″)

Caliber: 40 mm rocket engine ; 85 mm warhead

Muzzle velocity: 295 m/s

Effective range: 300 m

Sights: Iron sights

Differences between RPG-2 (top) and RPG-7 (bottom)
Yassin RPG featuring the combination of RPG-2 and RPG-7

IWI X95s, TAR-21s in Nigeria

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The Israeli 5.56x45mm Tavor is no stranger to the Nigerian defense forces, with the TAR 21 being introduced from Israel in a short barrel variant (around 14 inches) several years ago, and the X95 version seen in Nigeria in 2016 (possibly issued earlier). This photograph of a Nigerian soldier posing with stacked IWI rifles, some being the TAR 21 while others being the X95 versions came out in 2016 on the Nigerian public forum Nairaland, along with numerous other photographs of the defense forces.

Interestingly he is wearing an Irish Army camouflage pattern introduced in the early 2000s, known as DPM or “Paddyflage” among Irish troops. Image from Camopedia–

Improvised Mauser Suppressor (OIF)

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This photographs was posted on the U.S. Department of Defense Media Activity’s public domain website DVIDS along with another one featured on Silah Report. Both depict improvised suppressors captured by U.S. Infantrymen while on operations in Iraq.

The rifle appears to be a Mauser 98K with the stock sawed off just past the chamber. Because of the proximity to Iran and the incredible amount of Iranian surplus found in Iraq, it would appear from conjecture that this rifle is a Persian Mauser, manufactured in the time of the Shah in the 1940s-50s, later being replaced by the M1 Garand through U.S. Foreign Military Sales programs in the 1960s. Unlike the previous M16A1 rifle we posted about, this improvised suppressor appears to have involved much more work, with a much larger diameter pipe being welded around the actual barrel of the rifle at both the front and rear of the pipe. There is a section of much smaller diameter pipe protruding from the main one, but this doesn’t appear to be the barrel.

The scope mounted on this rifle is a Cold War era PSO-1 optic designed to mount on the optics rails usually riveted to the left side of a Kalashnikov or Dragunov receiver. It is unclear how this is mounted to the Mauser’s wood stock, unless an actual Warsaw Pact rail were somehow screwed into the wood stock itself.

Iraqi Insurgent Improvised M16A1 suppressor (OIF)

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This photograph was posted on the U.S. Department of Defense Media Activity’s public domain website DVIDS along with another one that will be featured on Silah Report. Both depict improvised suppressors captured by U.S. Infantrymen while on operations in Iraq.

From the photograph description-

The confiscated items lay on the ground in front of three men arrested as a suspected sniper team in the northeast Baghdad neighborhood of Haay Ur, Jan. 17. The men were arrested by the 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st National Police Division and the 3rd Battalion, 42nd Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division as the men attempted to carry out an attack on American forces in the area.

This first photograph depicts what appears to be a 5.56x45mm NATO M16A1 self-loading rifle due to the lack of a rear sight as a separate unit although the photograph is a little blurry to confirm this. The improvised suppressor appears to be some sort of muffling material wrapped around the standard 18 inch barrel of the M16A1, and then continues past the standard muzzle for about a foot of length. From the bulge just past the chamber, it appears that the standard barrel nut has been retained, and one can notice the taper of the barrel and gas tube in the shape of the suppressor. Mounted atop the carrying handle is a Trijicon 4×32 RCO. The grip is not a standard A2 grip and is most likely of commercial after market manufacture.

If the self-loading rifle is indeed an M16A1, the rifle might be a black-market trade from Lebanon or Israel where the M16A1 has seen extensive use by multiple armed entities. The presence of the pistol grip would support this assertion, as it could have been added along the way. It certainly isn’t from a captured U.S rifle. The chances of a Soldier or Marine mounting an after-market accessory such as a grip are extremely slim, and the chances of it being captured are even slimmer. In addition, the 20 round “Vietnam Era” magazine is further indicative that the rifle was initially fielded in Lebanon or Israel due to the amount of surplus equipment being sold to those countries.  It probably isn’t from a private military company either as M16A1s are rarely seen in use among these entities, 14 or 16 inch barrel length M4s being the preferred AR variant.  The Trijicon however would certainly appear to be a U.S capture or otherwise lost piece of gear, with the scope neoprene cover indicating that it was most likely newly issued or rarely used when acquired.

Construction of the improvised suppressor is harder to identify. It would appear that it is some sort of muffling or noise absorbing material stuffed inside a pipe( possibly metallic) the length of the entire suppressor. There appears to be another pipe, one of larger diameter than the main one, that connects both the main pipe and the barrel nut, thus enabling the contraption to stay in place. The entire pipe further appears to be wrapped in black tape of some sort, possibly to prevent any shine from a position of concealment. Whether or not the suppressor actually works, or how long it can adequately suppress is unknown at this point.

Sealing the deal on this capture is the video camera present, showing that the insurgents captured here were probably using the camera to film their shots on U.S troops for propaganda value, eerily  to the “Jubba” sniper videos that plagued troops based in Baghdad. Unconfirmed rumors about the “Jubba” sniper have stated that the actual shooter was using a Remington 700 shooting out of a loophole of a taxicab. A set up such as this suppressed M16A1 could just have been used in the very same way.

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!

Krinkology: For Every Saudi, There is a Yemeni…

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This image of a Yemeni Houthi, armed with a Zastava 7.62x39mm M92, what appears to be a Makarov, and a traditional Jambiya knife tucked into his belt has made numerous waves throughout Houthi social media over the previous several months. The rifle has a more or less standard Kalashnikov pattern sling, and as the stock unfolded.

The photograph itself of the man dressed in red has been circulated with a number of sayings attached to it as a sort of meme, some religious, but most appear to be Yemeni nationalist slogans. For example, in this iteration-

Translated from Arabic, this reads-

For every sick person, there is a cure

For every poor person, there is a God to make him rich

For every Saudi, there is a Yemeni to teach him how to behave

This version from a Twitter user–

Many of the photographs are being spread through the use of Instagram, with the different sayings attached to the pictures.

This one from Imgrum-

 

Krinkology is a unique SR post that exemplifies what the site stands for, in discussing the indigenous manufacture, trade, and use of small arms and light weapons within the MENA and Central Eurasian regions. Specifically, Krinkology examines the usage of short barrel Kalashnikov pattern rifles within popular culture and on the battlefield.

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.

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.