Ukraine & Syria Combat footage

Separatists, or Russian soldiers out of uniform?

Regardless, I definitely wouldn't be comfortable that close to the muzzle.

Is he stepping on the front leg of the tripod for stability?

Apparently there was no one shooting back at them.

They are wide open to counter-fire!!

rc

I've been watching the Kurds also. Pretty tough people. Theyve been doing most of the heavy lifting as far as fighting ISIS, but get little to no direct help or support other than airstrikes. They have a few home made sniper rifles they've built from heavy machine gun barrels, either 12.7's (Russian 50 cal) or 23mm AA gun barrels. They fabricate a bolt action, trigger mechanism, and scope mounts. In most videos, they are using semi-auto fire most of the time with their small arms, and shooting single shots with their belt fed guns, trying for accuracy over the long distances much of the fighting takes place at, and conserving ammo.

One aspect I enjoy seeing, all the women fighting with the Kurds. It also seems to scare the stuff out of ISIS. They believe if they are killed by a woman, they dont get to go to heaven or get their virgins, all of which is hilarious to the Kurdish women fighters.

Liveleak also has tons of videos. Search YPG, Kurdish, ISIS bodies (a favorite) Dead ISIS (another favorite) peshmerga, and Kobani. Kurdish female fighters is also a good search term on both youtube and Liveleak. Liveleak doesnt blur out gruesome stuff, if one is faint of heart. Fair warning.

There were several pieces done by an Australian TV news show. They did one last fall, then a follow-up this spring. Part 1 of a 2 parter of the spring one,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5A8Tw3gGe4

The Kurds have been making alliances with about everyone in the area to help fight ISIS. They are predominately muslim, of the sunni variety, but have shia muslims, Assyrians, Christians, Yezidi, Turkmen, and Arabs (Kurds arent Arab) all fighting directly in their groups, and have alliances with other groups around them. The Turkish group of Kurds went in to Mt Sinjar to rescue the Yezidi people that ISIS had attacked and drive there and were trying to eliminate (In the genocide sense). They managed to get them out, and have been training the Yezidis to fight and giving them weapons.

Many of the videos show a variety of small arms, mainly AK's, a few M16's and M4's, and quite a few of the Russian sniper rifles, Dragunuvs I believe. Germany has given them some Milan missiles, which theyve put to good use killing ISIS tanks and armored suicide vehicles. Germany also gave them some G-3 rifles and ammo, and MG-3 machine guns (the modern version of the MG-42). The battle for Kobani last fall was a turning point in the ISIS blitzkrieg. The Kurds were the ones that managed it, with quite a lot of help in US coalition air support and some supplies airdropped, as well as some Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga that the US pressured Turkey into letting through to join them. Turkey isnt fond of Kurds in general, and would rather let ISIS run amok than help the Kurds. Makes it a bit more complicated to get stuff done there with all the local politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJS65CWQfSQ

Pretty good 4 part piece by an Israeli journalist about the women fighters, with some really creepy interviews with a couple of captured ISIS guys. Gun stuff and shooting included, as in all the others linked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThbHqqD41Lw

That was my thought too rc. Their lack of a sense of urgency and totally open position are obvious. Only way that is combat footage is if they were going after a very distant target that they knew didn't have capability to return fire from that distance.

I always find these videos interesting as well. Usually on the liveleak ones I try not to rejoice when someone is killed, even though the video title says it's a bad guy. I've never known whether or not the title is correct and that we're actually seeing the reduction of actual enemy forces.

They must have had a spotter and they vamoosed pretty pronto quick so I'd say they got word or saw something they or the spotter didn't like. Like some lightly armed truck transport operation getting an APC with a .50 or larger shoot back mounted on it coming forward to support the trucks. Does anyone know the caliber of that MG?

Depending on who wins the presidential election here Putin could get pretty aggressive afterwards. It could be a very warm November over there.

Nice footage...thanks...Bexar

defintion of bad guys: just a question : who is the bad guy according to the Taliban?

about the Kurds: they where described by Xenophon, in 400 Before C, as a fierce fighting mountain people, they always were tought little buggers.

Does anyone know the caliber of that MG?

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Not positive, but the shells look like 12.7 HMG (Russian version of 50 cal HMG)

I must admit, I'm intrigued with both the both the Ukrainian separatists and the Kurdish Peshmerga.

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I have to say, if I cheer anyone in the Ukraine mess, it aint the "separatists", which mainly seems like a Russian invasion.

Separatists, or Russian soldiers out of uniform?

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Pretty much the same thing I believe.

I cheer on the Kurds.

vaupet said:

defintion of bad guys: just a question : who is the bad guy according to the Taliban?

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The fact you're even willing to go there is worthy of respect, and you're absolutely right. "Bad guys" is completely a matter of perspective.

People love to label things as either good or bad, as though doing it gives us some sort of authority over what actually is good and bad. It doesn't. Often, those labels are assigned erroneously.

Since this is in the General Gun Discussion section, of The High Road gun forum, we should probably keep the off topic posts to a minimun, or see it get closed.

I, for one, find the variety of guns in the videos pretty interesting. Besides the variety of AK varients, the captured weapons and oddballs in use are interesting. One still image of a news piece talking about Sunni militias wanting to join the fight against ISIS in Iraq showed a bunch of old grey haired guys with K-98 Mausers. I didnt know if that was a stock image or a real pic of current guys.

As for combat videos involving US troops' small arms and tactical aircraft (guns), how about Funkers530?

This source has released many videos from Afghanistan over the last few years.

Youtube -- where else. These videos Do fit the definition of "General Gun Discussions", and not just as required in the normal legalistic sense.

Funker530 does in fact have some good combat video of US troops in action. I've seen a number of them. That may be another thread topic though.

I wouldnt mind seeing some new videos of US troops in action in Syria, working with the Kurds. I did notice that many of the Kurds wear tennis shoes. Not boots. On the ground. Tennis shoes.

Cutting edge Russian Kord machinegun? They're not even trying to keep up plausible deniability at this point.

TCB

"I did notice that many of the Kurds wear tennis shoes. Not boots. On the ground. Tennis shoes."

Probably there isn't money to properly outfit them. Some Arab fighters are also seen wearing SANDALS.

Its likely partly that, and partly that they wear what they have and like. Its cultural to take ones shoes off when going inside, so I think they also probab ly like to be able to pull them off easily.

My tennis shoes. Not boots. On the ground comments was a hint. Politics. More people should perhaps wear tennis shoes. On the ground. Killing ISIS.

barnbwt said:

Cutting edge Russian Kord machinegun? They're not even trying to keep up plausible deniability at this point.

TCB

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I wonder what caliber the "separatists" AK's are chambered in.

I dunno, but they're probably AK-12's...

TCB