Trial and error learning. With this kind of investigation, in which you have to find the sense of it all by yourself, there is no other way. This morning, we realized where we went wrong. What are we trying to do? We’re trying to determine the production time and first purchasing countries of Belgian-made FN FAL rifles proliferating in modern conflict areas. Why are we trying to do this? In order to document modern conflicts thoroughly, and in order to identify current arms proliferation plateformes. For more information about our work, feel free to browse through the other articles of this website. It goes well beyond weapons, which are a means to an end, not an end in itself. How are we trying to do this? By comparing the material collected on the ground with data gathered through official sources such as the Belgian arms export licenses available at the Belgian state archives, and with other publicly available sources and literatures, with a trial and error method. Here’s a summary of what we know: 12,000 Belgian FN FAL rifles were reportedly purchased by Syria in 1957. With the exception of 100 FAL rifles licensed for export in 1969 through another company than FN Herstal itself, the arms export licenses available do not mention any later Syrian purchase. The features and serial numbers of FN FAL rifles observed in Syria indicate that those rifles were made after 1973 (the type III upper-receiver was not made before then). Thus, we can assume that those rifles have been diverted to Syria by another country. In September 2012, we came back from Syria with an interesting sample. We could document an FN FAL bearing two serial numbers, which would allow us to know more about its first purchasing country and plateforme of diversion. We assumed, based on its right-hand side serial number (see an example with the picture above), that the rifle was produced in or around 1980. Why? Because, as far as we know, after 1972, the right-hand side serial number engraved on Belgian FN FAL rifles represent the total amount of FAL rifles made by the Herstal plant, and because we assumed that the million was reached in or around 1980. That is were the mistake was. Here is a key element for our research: A chart, prepared for M. Blake Stevens’ Book “The Metric FAL” Volume III by M. Jean Van Rutten, who represented FN Herstal in various countries and was, around 1980, their Chargé de Mission in the FN Defence and Security Division’s Weapons Testing Section. This chart, published in M. Blake Stevens’ book and shown here for the purpose of our research only, shows FAL sales to 1980. “New, FN-made weapons only; no spare parts or client-licensed production”, the description says. This is really important. On the one hand, we know that after 1972, right-hand side serial numbers correspond to the total amount of Belgian FN FAL produced. On the other hand, we have this chart. Based on the serial numbers, we can now roughly determine the year of manufacture of FN FAL rifles. What can we see in this chart? That we made an important mistake: the million FN FAL made was not reached in 1980 but in mid-1972, just about at the introduction of the type III upper-receiver. Why is it important? Because we also assume that after 1972, left-hand side serial numbers represent the total amount of FN FAL rifles purchased by *one single, specific country*. With all these information, we can now try to determine what this country is when we have serial numbers on the two sides of a rifle, by digging in the Belgian arms export licenses archives. That’s what we did, here, and we reached the wrong conclusion that one rifle we found in September 2012 could only come from Qatar or Kuwait. But then the Belgian Foreign Affairs revealed that the rifles actually came from the United Arab Emirates, a country that was rulled out by our demonstration. So we had to think about it all over again, and find were the mistake was. Now we know. The FAL rifles we have found in September 2012 and March 2013 in Syria were not made in or around 1980, but in or around 1973. How many FAL rifles did the UAE have in or around 1973? Well, according to the Belgian archives, between 1972 and 1974, the UAE, formerly known as several entities: “Abu Dhabi”, “Dubai”, were authorized to receive 4,456 Belgian FN FAL rifles. Based on the information above, we can conclude that the UAE could well have been the first buyer of the FAL rifles found in Syria in September 2012 et March 2013.  The Belgian Foreign Affairs only confirmed the source of the September 2012 FAL rifles. But, based on the demonstration above, we can assume, without much risk, that the FAL rifle documented in March 2013 also comes from the UAE. The one of September 2012, with a left-hand side serial number of 4536, was most probably exported in 1974 or shortly after. The one of March 2013, with a left-hand side serial number of 4382 was most probably exporter in 1974. Another conclusion can be reached: Based on the latest information, it appears that, actually, neither Qatar nor Kuwait could have been the first buyers of the FN FAL rifles documented in September 2012 and March 2013, because they did not purchased enough FN FAL rifles between 1972 and 1974 to match with the elements of the demonstration above. Caveats here: the export licenses of the 1975-1979 period are not available for research because they have been illegally destroyed by the Belgian authorities. Most importantly, the fact that this corrected demonstration matches with the revelations of the Belgian Foreign Affairs shows that we can fairly assume that the FAL rifle’s serial numbers, if correctly interpreted can give very valuable pieces of information. Edit 1 March 19: It seems alors that the grooved handguard cannot be a certain sign of production time. We assumed it became standard feature as from 1978, but it’s already present on this rifle made around 1974. More field research should bring more pieces of information. Another interesting thing to point out is that in the FN FAL rifles documented in September 2012, only one had the two serial numbers allowing us to check them with the state archives. The others did not, and appear to have been produced much later, in the 1980’s. But the Belgian Foreign Affairs declared that the UAE was the first buyer nonetheless.  For comments, opinion, advice, please get in touch.
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Trial and error learning. With this kind of investigation, in which you have to find the sense of it all by yourself, there is no other way. This morning, we realized where we went wrong.

What are we trying to do? We’re trying to determine the production time and first purchasing countries of Belgian-made FN FAL rifles proliferating in modern conflict areas.

Why are we trying to do this? In order to document modern conflicts thoroughly, and in order to identify current arms proliferation plateformes. For more information about our work, feel free to browse through the other articles of this website. It goes well beyond weapons, which are a means to an end, not an end in itself.

How are we trying to do this? By comparing the material collected on the ground with data gathered through official sources such as the Belgian arms export licenses available at the Belgian state archives, and with other publicly available sources and literatures, with a trial and error method.

Here’s a summary of what we know:

12,000 Belgian FN FAL rifles were reportedly purchased by Syria in 1957. With the exception of 100 FAL rifles licensed for export in 1969 through another company than FN Herstal itself, the arms export licenses available do not mention any later Syrian purchase.

The features and serial numbers of FN FAL rifles observed in Syria indicate that those rifles were made after 1973 (the type III upper-receiver was not made before then). Thus, we can assume that those rifles have been diverted to Syria by another country.

In September 2012, we came back from Syria with an interesting sample. We could document an FN FAL bearing two serial numbers, which would allow us to know more about its first purchasing country and plateforme of diversion.

We assumed, based on its right-hand side serial number (see an example with the picture above), that the rifle was produced in or around 1980. Why? Because, as far as we know, after 1972, the right-hand side serial number engraved on Belgian FN FAL rifles represent the total amount of FAL rifles made by the Herstal plant, and because we assumed that the million was reached in or around 1980. That is were the mistake was.

Here is a key element for our research: A chart, prepared for M. Blake Stevens’ Book “The Metric FAL” Volume III by M. Jean Van Rutten, who represented FN Herstal in various countries and was, around 1980, their Chargé de Mission in the FN Defence and Security Division’s Weapons Testing Section.

This chart, published in M. Blake Stevens’ book and shown here for the purpose of our research only, shows FAL sales to 1980. “New, FN-made weapons only; no spare parts or client-licensed production”, the description says.

This is really important. On the one hand, we know that after 1972, right-hand side serial numbers correspond to the total amount of Belgian FN FAL produced. On the other hand, we have this chart. Based on the serial numbers, we can now roughly determine the year of manufacture of FN FAL rifles.

What can we see in this chart? That we made an important mistake: the million FN FAL made was not reached in 1980 but in mid-1972, just about at the introduction of the type III upper-receiver.

Why is it important? Because we also assume that after 1972, left-hand side serial numbers represent the total amount of FN FAL rifles purchased by *one single, specific country*. With all these information, we can now try to determine what this country is when we have serial numbers on the two sides of a rifle, by digging in the Belgian arms export licenses archives. That’s what we did, here, and we reached the wrong conclusion that one rifle we found in September 2012 could only come from Qatar or Kuwait.

But then the Belgian Foreign Affairs revealed that the rifles actually came from the United Arab Emirates, a country that was rulled out by our demonstration. So we had to think about it all over again, and find were the mistake was.

Now we know. The FAL rifles we have found in September 2012 and March 2013 in Syria were not made in or around 1980, but in or around 1973.

How many FAL rifles did the UAE have in or around 1973? Well, according to the Belgian archives, between 1972 and 1974, the UAE, formerly known as several entities: “Abu Dhabi”, “Dubai”, were authorized to receive 4,456 Belgian FN FAL rifles.

Based on the information above, we can conclude that the UAE could well have been the first buyer of the FAL rifles found in Syria in September 2012 et March 2013. 

The Belgian Foreign Affairs only confirmed the source of the September 2012 FAL rifles. But, based on the demonstration above, we can assume, without much risk, that the FAL rifle documented in March 2013 also comes from the UAE.

The one of September 2012, with a left-hand side serial number of 4536, was most probably exported in 1974 or shortly after. The one of March 2013, with a left-hand side serial number of 4382 was most probably exporter in 1974.

Another conclusion can be reached: Based on the latest information, it appears that, actually, neither Qatar nor Kuwait could have been the first buyers of the FN FAL rifles documented in September 2012 and March 2013, because they did not purchased enough FN FAL rifles between 1972 and 1974 to match with the elements of the demonstration above. Caveats here: the export licenses of the 1975-1979 period are not available for research because they have been illegally destroyed by the Belgian authorities.

Most importantly, the fact that this corrected demonstration matches with the revelations of the Belgian Foreign Affairs shows that we can fairly assume that the FAL rifle’s serial numbers, if correctly interpreted can give very valuable pieces of information.

Edit 1 March 19: It seems alors that the grooved handguard cannot be a certain sign of production time. We assumed it became standard feature as from 1978, but it’s already present on this rifle made around 1974. More field research should bring more pieces of information. Another interesting thing to point out is that in the FN FAL rifles documented in September 2012, only one had the two serial numbers allowing us to check them with the state archives. The others did not, and appear to have been produced much later, in the 1980’s. But the Belgian Foreign Affairs declared that the UAE was the first buyer nonetheless. 

For comments, opinion, advice, please get in touch.

One more Belgian FN FAL rifle in Syria (where it is called “NATO”). Here’s what can be said on this one, based on what we learnt of the FN FAL in our own experience of it (FN Herstal did not wish to help us in our research on the FN FAL proliferation):

  • Type III upper-receiver: post-1973.
  • Grooved handguard: post-1978.
  • Right-hand side serial number: 1116923, which means, as far as we know, that 1,116,922 FAL rifles were produced before this one at the Herstal plant, in Belgium.
  • Left-hand side serial number: 4382, which means, as far as we know, that the country that bought this FAL rifle already purchased 4,381 rifles before.

We extensively investigated the occurrence of Belgian FN FAL rifles in the Syrian conflict. For more information, you can check this. Go here if you can read French.

We still need your help: We tried to determine the source-country of the diversion by cross-checking the serial numbers we had found with the Belgian arms export licenses we had access to. It appears we made a mistake somewhere: we assumed one particular rifle, documented in the Jebel az-Zawiyah last September, came from Qatar or Kuwait, but the Belgian Foreign Affairs revealed it came from the United Arab Emirates. Get in touch if you think you can help. IMPORTANT UPDATE, March 19, 2013: The mistake has been located. An updated demonstration is available here. 

—

In the attempt to document as much as possible the current Syrian conflict, we are posting on this website pictures of arms and ordnance used by the Syrian army and/or the Syrian insurgents.

The latest trip inside was particularly rich. Some of the ordnance you will see have already been identified pretty accurately, using a process that can only gain by being known: collaboration (much in the fashion of C.J. Chivers, of The New York Times, here and here). Some are still incomplete puzzles, or total mysteries. If you think you can help, please get in touch.

We will come back to some of the weapons later, as they may be able to tell more than just their name.

You can navigate by using the arrows, left and right of the pictures. Thanks to those who helped (like Nic Jenzen-Jones) and those who will.

This article, of Christophe Lamfalussy, was published not so long ago, in La Libre Belgique, along my piece on the COARM report (see here). Some context: the Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister, Didier Reynders, was visiting the Gulf countries recently. In Qatar, he made a declaration regarding the information we uncovered about the Belgian arms diversion tacking place in Syria: In Qatar, Reynders also asked the country not to re-export to Gaza and the Syrian opposition the arms of the FN [FN Herstal, Belgian small arms producer]. The government asked FN, based on pictures published in the press and on the serial numbers of the weapons, to verify the origin of the Belgian arms. This is an interesting twist in the investigation, especially after Mister Reynders said at first that this was not the competence of the federal government: D. Reynders answers the parliamentary question of N. Lijnen regarding the diversion of Belgian arms to Syri… These are the questions that I asked to the Belgian Foreign Affairs. The answers did not come yet. “Au Qatar, Reynders a également demandé que le pays ne réexporte pas vers Gaza et vers l’opposition syrienne les armes de la FN. Le gouvernement a demandé à la FN, sur base de photos publiés dans la presse et des numéros gravés sur les armes, de vérifier l’origine des armes belges, très réputées au Moyen-Orient.” Pourriez-vous m’en dire un peu plus?  Est-ce Monsieur Reynders (les Affaires Etrangères) qui a fait cette demande à la FN?  Sous quelle forme?  Quand cette demande a-t-elle été faite?  Pour quand attendez-vous une réponse?  La FN a-t-elle l’obligation de répondre?  Quelle a été la demande, précisément (identification des premiers acheteurs sur base de numéros de série publiés dans la presse? si oui, quels numéros de série, exactement? et retrouvés en Syrie?)  Je croyais que ce n’était pas la responsabilité des Affaires Etrangères, mais il semble que le ministère s’en occupe tout de même, qu’en est-il?
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This article, of Christophe Lamfalussy, was published not so long ago, in La Libre Belgique, along my piece on the COARM report (see here).

Some context: the Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister, Didier Reynders, was visiting the Gulf countries recently. In Qatar, he made a declaration regarding the information we uncovered about the Belgian arms diversion tacking place in Syria:

In Qatar, Reynders also asked the country not to re-export to Gaza and the Syrian opposition the arms of the FN [FN Herstal, Belgian small arms producer]. The government asked FN, based on pictures published in the press and on the serial numbers of the weapons, to verify the origin of the Belgian arms.

This is an interesting twist in the investigation, especially after Mister Reynders said at first that this was not the competence of the federal government:

D. Reynders answers the parliamentary question of N. Lijnen regarding the diversion of Belgian arms to Syri…

These are the questions that I asked to the Belgian Foreign Affairs. The answers did not come yet.

“Au Qatar, Reynders a également demandé que le pays ne réexporte pas vers Gaza et vers l’opposition syrienne les armes de la FN. Le gouvernement a demandé à la FN, sur base de photos publiés dans la presse et des numéros gravés sur les armes, de vérifier l’origine des armes belges, très réputées au Moyen-Orient.”

  • Pourriez-vous m’en dire un peu plus? 
  • Est-ce Monsieur Reynders (les Affaires Etrangères) qui a fait cette demande à la FN? 
  • Sous quelle forme? 
  • Quand cette demande a-t-elle été faite? 
  • Pour quand attendez-vous une réponse? 
  • La FN a-t-elle l’obligation de répondre? 
  • Quelle a été la demande, précisément (identification des premiers acheteurs sur base de numéros de série publiés dans la presse? si oui, quels numéros de série, exactement? et retrouvés en Syrie?) 
  • Je croyais que ce n’était pas la responsabilité des Affaires Etrangères, mais il semble que le ministère s’en occupe tout de même, qu’en est-il?

The Walloon Region agrees it cannot do its job

According to the criterion 7 of the European Common Position on Arms Export, the Walloon Region has to assess the risk of arms diversion before issuing an export license to a certain company for a certain country. However, the Walloon Region does not have access to the documents that would allow to do so, according to official documents.

The Walloon Region agrees it cannot do its job

As we saw it earlier, Belgian weapons have been diverted to fuel the current Syrian conflict (see the demonstration here). In order to identify the diverting country (or countries) - the first buyer(s) of the weapons, the Walloon Region (the authority issuing export licenses for that type of firearms) would have to have access to the archives of the FN Herstal (the company that produced the diverted weapons). Assuming that the public authority, as it is owning the arms company, had access to those documents, necessary to perform what its own law requires, we introduced a FOIA-equivalent request (see above). According to the answer of the special commission that examined our request, the administration does not have access to such documents. How can the Walloon Region perform its duty, then? How is the authority assessing the diversion risk, based on material documents? These questions remain unanswered.

In the meantime, a new twist in the story: After having declared, in the parliament, that this was not a federal competence, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government had asked the FN Herstal to say where the rifles we had seen in Syria were sold in the first place. Soon, on this website, the questions that this declaration triggered.

Which Countries are Supplying Syrian Rebels with Belgian FAL Rifles? The Data Answer

IMPORTANT UPDATE, March 19, 2013: there was a mistake in this demonstration, it has been corrected. An updated demonstration is available here. Please consider the demonstration below has part of a trial and error learning process.

Some results out of a first digging into the Belgian arms export licenses archives.

Keep in mind that a license does not always equal an export. So far, we do not have the data for the arms exports themselves, but the licenses give quite a good idea of what was going on.

For now, we’ll focus on the licenses asked by the FN Herstal plant regarding only one type of equipment: an “automatic/semi-automatic rifle caliber 7.62”. As no other rifle of this caliber was produced by this plant in that period, we can assume that these licenses are for the FN FAL.

We did not have access to all the archives, for several reasons (we’ll talk about it later). Partly thanks to a FOIA procedure, we had access to the years: 

  • 1969-1974
  • 1980-1988

Total: 15 years

The FAL production, in Belgium, started in 1953 to end somewhere at the end of the 80s (the latest occurrence is 1988 for the moment). Years missing: 21.

These are the countries we studied:

  • Syria
  • Turkey
  • Iraq
  • Jordan
  • Qatar
  • Lebanon
  • Libya
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Kuwait
  • United Arab Emirats
  • Oman

Please note that we are still studying the data: those results might still change - slightly.


Afficher The FAL presence around Syria sur une carte plus grande

DATA

SYRIA

  • 1969-1974: 0*
  • 1980-1988: 0
  • TOTAL: 0

*There is a mention of a 100 FAL rifles license for Syria in 1969. This license was not asked by the FN Herstal plant, but by another company. It is thus difficult to assess if those FAL rifles were made in Belgium, and we preferred to leave them out for now. We will write soon about the Belgian FAL rifles sold to Syria before 1969, thanks to someone who approached us on Twitter.

TURKEY

  • 1969-1974: 0
  • 1980-1988: 0
  • TOTAL: 0

IRAQ

  • 1969-1974: 0
  • 1980-1988: 0
  • TOTAL: 0

JORDAN

  • 1969-1974: 0
  • 1980-1988:  max. 9
  • TOTAL: max. 9

QATAR

  • 1969-1974: 2,000
  • 1980-1988: 12,400
  • TOTAL: 14,400

LEBANON

  • 1969-1974: 10,715
  • 1980-1988: 0
  • TOTAL: 10,715

LIBYA

  • 1969-1974: 44,260
  • 1980-1988: 2,000
  • TOTAL: 46,260

SAUDI ARABIA

  • 1969-1974: 19,982
  • 1980-1988: 4,501
  • TOTAL: 24,483

KUWAIT

  • 1969-1974: 2,310
  • 1980-1988: 26,206
  • TOTAL: 28,516

UNITED ARAB EMIRATS

  • 1969-1974: 7,069
  • 1980-1988: 6,708
  • TOTAL: 13,777

OMAN

  • 1969-1974: 17,861
  • 1980-1988: 6,201
  • TOTAL: 24,062

OBSERVATIONS

Although the data is very limited (limited number of years + license is not export), some observations can be made. These observations are based on the temporary results and are, thus, not definitive.

With the exception of some Israeli-made rifles, the FALs observed in Syria do not bear any factory markings other than the typical Belgian production marks. Other marking could have indicated rifles were produced or assembled outside of Belgium; as it stands, the rifles observe appear to have originated from FN Herstal.

According to the features and to the serial numbers observed on the FAL rifles we have found in Syria, we estimate their production time to be post-78, and probably somewhere in the years 1980.

Syria did not order any FAL rifles between 1980 and 1988. Therefore, the FAL rifles observed on the ground come from outside.

The countries we chose to study are the one regularly appearing in the news as sending Syrian insurgents weapons or as being a territory from which weapons are supplied to them.

Rebel fighters have said that some of their FAL rifles were supplied by Libya. But most of the Libyan FAL rifles were ordered before 1980. Therefore, most of the FAL rifles supplied by Libya do not originate from Libya itself.

A CONCRETE EXAMPLE

Have a look at those pictures, below, part of a batch from Syria we published earlier. Let’s narrow down the production time and possible countries of diversion.

image

PICTURE 1: This is a FAL rifle found in the Jebel al-Zawiya region in September 2012 in the hands of the insurgents fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad. No licensed production marks were found on this rifle, which indicates that this weapons has been produced in Belgium, at the FN Herstal plant.

image

PICTURE 2: The upper receiver is a Type III receiver, which was made as from 1973. This rifle was, thus, made after 1973.

image

PICTURE 3: The bipods grooves, under the hand guard, is an option introduced as standard as from 1978. This rifle was thus made after 1978.

image

PICTURE 4: There are two serial numbers on this rifle. This feature was introduced in 1972, which confirms the fact that this rifle is a post 1972 rifle. Moreover, after 1972, the serial number found on the right of the FN FAL rifle indicates the total number of FAL rifles made by FN Herstal in Belgium. The million was reached in or after 1978. This confirms what we said about the bipod grooves feature. According to the right side serial number, we can assess that this rifle was produced in or around 1980.

image

PICTURE 5: As from 1972, the left side serial number indicates the number of FN FAL rifles in a country’s stock. This FN FAL rifle, being the 1.117.071st of its kind produced in Belgium, is only the 4536th to have been sold to a particular country, in or around 1980. What is this country?

Well, it’s not Syria, which means that the country that bought this FN FAL rifle in or around 1980 diverted this weapon to a 3rd party at one point.

Looking at the data above, we can say that this rifle was not sold to Turkey, nor to Iraq, and probably not to Jordania. It was not sold to Libya, nor Saudi Arabia, nor Lebanon, nor the UAE, nor Oman. All those countries already had a stock of FN FAL counting more than 4536 rifles in 1980. On the other hand, this rifle could well come from Qatar or Kuwait.

Only one of the FAL rifles we observed in Syria was bearing two serial numbers, which allowed us to narrow down the possibilities. With the other rifles, only the ‘general’ right side serial number was there. So we can only talk about the possible production time, and not about the possible diverting country. This could also mean that more than one country is supplying Belgian FAL rifles to the rebels. The other rifles observed bear de serial numbers: 1,730,043 ; 1,732,382 ; 1,462,215 ; 1,473,224 ; 1,474,077. This indicates that they have been produced after 1980, and can not, therefore, have been purchased by Syria, according to the Belgian arms export licenses we had access to.

There is a way to know where those FAL rifles were sold to, and which country diverted them. The only way to know which countries are supplying the Syrian insurgents in FAL rifles would be to trace the serial numbers collected on the ground. In the Walloon Parliament, some have asked for the release of all FAL serial numbers in order to map the proliferation. The Belgian Walloon authorities, if they want to respect the legislation they are promoting, have to launch such a tracing procedure and have to make the result public. Will they do it?

—

Any comment, observation, reaction: damien.spleeters@gmail.com or @damspleet on Twitter.

All the pictures are from the author.

Thanks to those who contributed to this article.

Thanks to N.R. Jenzen-Jones (@RogueAdventurer) for the editing.

In this video, uploaded on November 8, 2012, the Shuhada Suriya Brigade, in the Jebel al-Zawiya, Syria, gives a good view of its small arms arsenal. I count 11 FAL rifles in this video (see screenshots below). But there is probably more of them.

Thanks to @Bjoernen_dk for pointing this video out to me.

Two new videos from Syria in which FAL rifles appear.

Three in the first one, above (uploaded on November 2, 2012).

At least one, on the far right, in a second video (uploaded on November 7, 2012).

Thanks to @Brown_Moses and @bjoernen_dk for pointing them out to me.

A FAL rifle equipped with optic scope and used to snipe in Blleramoon district, Aleppo, Syria. Video uploaded on November 2, 2012. Once again, it looks like this fighter might be experiencing some trouble with his FAL rifle. He fires once, then has to manually action the bolt to feed the next cartridge and eject the spent one.

Two other examples of this problem were observed here and here.

(h/t @Bjoernen_dk)

A FAL rifle in the hands of a Syrian rebel fighter in Deir Ez Zor. Uploaded on November 2, 2012.

(h/t @Brown_Moses)

Two FAL rifles equipped with optic scopes, used by the Islam Brigade, which usually operates around Damascus, Syria. Video uploaded on November 2, 2012.

(h/t @Brown_Moses)

10 minutes of hell for this Syrian fighter. The FAL rifle he is using to snipe, equipped with an optic scope, fails to eject and to feed. The constant malfunction transforms his rifle into some sort of bolt action FAL. At some point, the sniper even has to action the bolt by stepping on it. We encounter one other video where Syrian rebels were experiencing the same kind of malfunctions with their FAL rifles, which can make the difference between life and death when combattants are engaged in a firefight.

The question now is: why are those fighters having such problems with their FAL rifles in Syria? Although the videos are not detailed enough to provide any hints, interviews on the ground lead us to think that a possible answer has to be found in the type of ammunition used. More about this soon, without a doubt.

I could not identify the location exactly. It appears to be in Al Qadam, Damascus. Video uploaded on October 29, 2012.

h/t to @bjoernen_dk and @ali_alsanah

Several FAL rifles spotted in a video from Mahmpel, Syria, uploaded on October 31, 2012.

(h/t to @bjoernen_dk)

A FAL rifle spotted in a video from Douma, Syria, uploaded on October 31, 2012.

(h/t to @hlk01)

Concentration of FAL rifles in the hands of Syrian rebel forces belonging to the “Grandchildren of the Prophet” Brigade, according to Al Jazeera. The footage where the FAL rifles appear is from July, location unspecified.

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