Homemade Syrian weapons

[Jon]

A controversial topic, but if you run any sort of DIY or manufacturing website and you're ignoring this, you're doing an intellectual disservice to your audience. Basic geopolitical background and 20+ photos below.




Wars are often difficult to parse, and the situation in Syria is one of the most confusing in history. There are hundreds of different groups of rebels, and multiple forces against which to rebel. Even mapping the conflict is challenging, with all of the different fighters and factions, many of whose names are difficult to even pronounce.




Western nations universally want to combat the ISIS presence, but there is disagreement over how to handle Assad. Borders with neighboring countries are blurring, and nobody knows what do to with millions of refugees, mostly decent people, but among whom are hidden terrorists plotting for maximum destruction at any cost.




Obviously, countries looking to address the problem prefer to limit involvement by training and equipping the foreign forces fighting as proxies on their preferred side. There's no lack of this activity by the US and allied nations (Syrian Train and Equip Program, Timber Sycamore), but, thus far, it hasn't been particularly successful.

In contrast to the confounding geopolitical complexity, Syrian rebels engaged in combat are fighting an extremely basic battle for their lives, their families, their future. Bread, water, shelter. Men. Metal.

Like the situation in Cuba in the 1990s, Syrians have few resources besides the pre-existing remnants of technology, and their own ingenuity. However, while war was widely feared in Cuba, it never happened, so Cubans could remain focused on things like powered bicycles, lunch tray antennas, and hearing aid rechargers. Syrians are not so lucky; for them, this ingenuity means homemade weapons.

The photographic record is an extraordinary mix of homespun and repurposed materials, and gives a fascinating view into wartime rebel manufacturing as opposed to peacetime fabrication.

Medieval siege weapons. One is braced with an old appliance weighted with rocks. Another uses 1,000+ year old technology, and is recorded by a rebel holding a sleek modern video camera.








Politicians no doubt swearing up and down that they never supplied the rebels "weapons", but of course everyone gets a free military vest.




Gunsmithing is probably too advanced, and ammunition hard to come by. But shotguns can be converted to ad hoc explosives launchers, and anything can become a makeshift bomb or missile, right down to an ornament ball.








The vehicles.










A video game controller used to fire from an armored vehicle.




Soda bottle gas mask.




A smartphone app compass used to aim homemade missiles.




Cigarettes, sparks, sandals.








At the heart of it all, the old machines. Sometimes it's swords-to-ploughshares, and sometimes the other way around.








Bright eyes, dirty teeth.




Previously:

Cuban homemade tools and technological disobedience
WWII German military helmets repurposed into colanders
Armored bulldozer rampage in Colorado
International Harvester towed mine planter
1940s Frigidaire factories converted to wartime production