Tuesday 27 August 2013

Syrian Government DIY Munitions Captured By The Opposition In Khanasser

Since yesterday, there's been a number of reports of the opposition capturing government positions in the town of Khanasser, near Aleppo, a key supply route for government forces in the region.

The following video shows a government munitions warehouse in Khanasser captured by opposition forces


Among the various mortars and RPG rounds, there's a pile of munitions that the cameraman barely takes any time to look at, but are probably the most interesting thing in the room


Here we have a pile of around ten munitions known as IRAMs (Improvised Rocket Assisted Munitions), a DIY munition that takes a rocket, in this case a 107mm rocket, removes the original payload, and replaces it with a much large payload.  It loses range and accuracy, but gains a much greater amount of explosive power.  Not only are they here in large numbers, but there's even one in a shipping crate, suggesting they aren't being put together by forces in the local area



This isn't the first time they've been seen in the conflict, with a dozen sightings of these munitions going back to the October 2012.  It's always been claimed by the opposition that these are being used by government forces, and many people have doubted the use of DIY weapons by government forces, but this seems to prove, that along with DIY barrel bombs, the Syrian government's forces have been deploying DIY weapons.

The New York Times' At War blog examined these in detail back in October 2012, talking about the munitions with specialist John Ismay, who details their use by Shiite militias in Iraq, in particular the Iranian linked Kataib Hezbollah. It should be noted that the IRAMs seen in Syria appear to use a mix of Chinese and Iranian 107mm rocket motors.

Related Articles
DIY Weapons In Syria - Hezbollah Deploys IRAMs In Qusayr
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More Details Of Air-To-Air Missiles Used As Surface-To-Surface Missiles
Video Footage Of Air-To-Air Missiles Being Used As Surface-To-Surface Missiles In Syria
DIY Weapons In Syria - The Mobile Mortar Battery
DIY Weapons In Syria - The DIY Grenade Launcher

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com


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