Just days after the four-year anniversary of Syria’s bloody civil war, new photos of Syrian rebels’ weapons suggest increasingly ambitious innovation in their DIY arms manufacturing. Although anti-government groups like the Free Syrian Army have repeatedly called for—and sometimes received—arms donations from foreign governments, homemade weapons cobbled together from farming and construction equipment continue to play an important part in the conflict. They have been deployed on all sides, from Syrian government forces’ nail-filled “barrel bombs” to the Islamic State’s improvised explosive devices to rebel Islamist coalition Shamiyya Front’s gas-canister-loaded cannon, the Borkan (“Volcano”).
Below, the evolution of weapons made by Syrian rebels throughout the conflict.
