Vz 58 – Silah Report

ANNA News (Abkhazian Network News Agency) has published a video where they show the arms and munitions captured by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) as a result of Operation Basalt launched by the SAA against various armed groups in Southern Syria. Besides the tanks, armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons, there is also a wide variety of small arms which is especially interesting in the context of Silah Report. Let’s watch the mentioned video first then discuss what interesting small arms were shown in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIWP9Jzbzaw

Below you will find screenshots from the video with captions describing the weapon systems shown in the image.

Small Arms Captured by the Syrian Arab Army (3) — Probably the most widespread heavy machine gun in this conflict is the DShK, however, you can also see 14.5mm KPV machine guns like the one shown in this image.

MG-34 with a number of PKM machine guns on the background. I think at some point a new wood stock for the MG-34 was made locally which should be the reason why it has a more simplified look.

Small Arms Captured by the Syrian Arab Army (4) — Several anti-materiel rifles. Some of them look similar to Steyr HS-50 or its Iranian copy called Sayyad or the Palestinian copy Ghoul.

Small Arms Captured by the Syrian Arab Army (5) — Needless to say that the most frequently seen rifle in the Middle Eastern conflicts is the AK with all its variations. In this image, you can see a number of stamped receiver AKMs including some Romanian ones with their distinct lower handguard shape which has a built-in vertical grip (a.k.a. “dong” handguard). Note also that the fourth rifle from the top is a Czech Vz. 58. And perhaps the most interesting one is the rifle on top which has an East German stock and lower handguard and lacks the pistol grip, gas tube and gas block. Let’s take a closer look at it.

Small Arms Captured by the Syrian Arab Army (9) — It is possible that this rifle is just damaged and that’s the reason why it is missing some of the parts. However, I think the chances are high that they converted it into a straight-pull bolt action rifle for whatever reason (e.g. lack of spare parts to restore it).

Last but not least, some WW2 weapons still in use in the Syrian war. The very bottom rifle is a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 followed by an M1 Garand and a couple of MAS-36 bolt action rifles. On top of the MAS-36 rifles, there is a Chinese SKS (Type 56) with a folding spike bayonet and an M1 Carbine.

If you spotted any other interesting firearm in the video or noticed a misidentified firearm, please let us know in the comments section.