Three weapons, three serial numbers.

These three rifles are Belgian. What’s so important about them? Well, the United Nations Panel of Experts on Libya mentioned them in its latest report, released this month:

73. The Panel requested the Belgian authorities to assist in tracing an FNC assault rifle that was photographed in Libya in 2012.2 The Belgian authorities responded that the rifle (serial No. 025992) bore markings that resembled a rifle that was part of an order exported to the Qatari armed forces in Doha around 1980.

99. In the first tracing request, an FN FAL assault rifle photographed in Libya in 2012 (serial No. 1514944) was identified by the Belgian manufacturer as being part of an order that was delivered to the Emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 1979.

100. In the second tracing request, another FN FAL assault rifle photographed in Libya in 2012 (serial No. 1731984) was identified as resembling a weapon delivered to the Emirate of Dubai in an order dated 19 April 1991.

The problem? Those rifles were not found in Qatar nor in the UAE. They were found in Libya, in the hands of the men who fought Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

What does it mean? First, that Qatar and the UAE illegally diverted Belgian weapons. Second, that by doing so they breached an UN arms embargo.

Will Belgium change its arms export policy towards those two countries? With the elements of information available today, this question remains open.*

What it shows, though, is the importance of thoroughly documenting the tools of war.

Those rifles were not documented by the UN Panel of Experts, but by journalists on the ground. Those journalists then published their photographs and their stories. The Belgian authorities refused to trace those weapons until it was asked from them by the UN.

If you’re in Belgium and can read French, make sure to get a copy of Le Vif/L’Express today (or before next Thursday) for more details. (For those of you who will read the article, forgive the mistakes the photo editor made: the 1st picture is obviously an FNC, and the serial number on the 3rd page belongs to an FN FAL, not to an FNC.)

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Photos 1 and 2: an FN FAL rifle, with right-hand side serial number. Benghazi, Libya, February 2012, Damien Spleeters.

Photos 3 and 4: an FN FAL rifle, with right-hand side serial number. Benghazi, Libya, June 2012, Jef Linssen.

Photo 5 and 6: an FNC assault rifle, with serial number. Libya, June 2012, Jef Linssen.

*This paragraph was edited on April 19, 14:10 following a discussion held in the comment section.

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. 

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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.

“Release all FN FAL rifles serial numbers” Belgian Walloon PM asks

Sur le plan diplomatique, la Belgique est le fer de lance de la lutte contre la prolifération des armes légères et de petit calibre. Dans les faits, des armes de fabrication belge continuent d’apparaître là où elles ne devraient pas être. Dernièrement, en Syrie.

Bientôt, dans Le Vif (en français), les faits qui ont poussé un membre du parlement wallon à poser la question ci-dessous:

Question Ecrite FAL RW

I will first deal with the new ammunition and then with the weapon designed to fire it…

- René Laloux, Director-General of Fabrique Nationale, Herstal 1950-1963.

Mister Laloux said this on September 6, 1951, in his introductory remarks at the Brasschaat demonstration of a newly invented weapon that would become the famous FN FAL.

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This quote is from “The Metric FAL”, volume three, by R. Blake Stevens and Jean E. Van Rutten.

**UPDATES are at the end of this post**

This video demonstrating the use of a FN FAL was published a few days ago along with two others, also focusing on that firearm, here and here.

Reading the markings shown on one of the videos, one would conclude that part of that FAL’s kit was made in Brazil, which is interesting for a video intended to provide weapons’ related instructions to Syrians who would join the opposition forces.

As I keep digging into this, I was wondering if any of the readers of this website were FAL enthusiasts or part of the military and would care to give their opinion both on the weapon and on what is shown in those videos. Don’t hesitate to answer to this post!

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UPDATE July 17, 2012: Steve Johnson, Editor-in-Chief at The Firearm Blog (I sent him the videos, which are now featured with some interesting information) wrote me today. According to him, the scope mount rail, above the receiver, is a DSA Arms Extreme Duty Scope Mount, which is manufactured by DSA Arms in the USA. He continues:

“Looking at [the] other videos, I think they were shot in the USA. [The] collection of guns, specifically the Kel-Tec, which has not [been] exported in great quantities. It’s possible it is Syria, but I doubt it.”

The USA-based hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that the Kalashnikov-variant rifle shown in another video appears to be a variant imported from Romania to the USA by Century Arms, Georgia, Vermont (Watch the video in HD, approximatively at 02:00).

UPDATE July 18, 2012: Wired Danger Room is featuring the same thing now, with more information.

Rebel fighters have said they were also in possession of thousands of Belgian FN FAL assault rifles.

Reuters Insight: Syria rebels get light arms, heavy weapons elusive

Members of the Free Syrian Army talked to Reuters about their arsenal. Part of it is Belgian, but its provenance is still unclear, and the article doesn’t help much on this: no details about where the FN FAL come from. It could be from Syria itself. The Syrian army officially adopted the FN FAL in 1956.

Mapping the Belgian FN FAL proliferation out of Libya after the 2011 conflict

This map shows where FN FAL diverted from Libya have been found so far. I’ll update it when new information is coming. Click on the points on the map to have more information about it and see the source.


Afficher Belgian FN FAL proliferation out of Libya following the 2011 conflict sur une carte plus grande

Mark (@markito0171 on Twitter) draw our attention today with a video from Syria uploaded yesterday May 29, 2012. This video depicts a gunfight in a town identified by Mark as Al-Atarib, in the neighborhood of Aleppo, North Syria, close to the Turkish border.

What is interesting for us is that one of the fighters is seen carrying a FN FAL.

Without any closer look at the rifle, it is very hard to go beyond a broad identification of the weapon’s type.

Remember, we talked about FN FAL in Syria here, and here.

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