Syrian fighters' credibility shot to pieces by toy guns posturing
Cj Chivers
June 16, 2012
IF DECEPTION has always been part of war, it has not often been as bungled as in the video announcement by Syrian opposition fighters of the formation of a special forces brigade joining the battle against the President, Bashar al-Assad.
The video, posted on YouTube, contained staples of underground fighters' messages in the internet age: 14 men dressed in black, each with his face hidden behind ski masks or cloth, posing with what appeared to be modified MP-5 sub-machineguns, a weapon often in service with counterterrorism teams.
According to an analysis by a curator at a British arms museum, the 11 men were each holding a TD-2007, a Chinese-made toy replica of the MP-5 sub-machinegun, marketed as appropriate for children above the age of five. To each, the men had affixed an extension - perhaps a painted dowel or a section of pipe - masquerading as a long barrel.
This week The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, published photographs of a so-called Ghost unit, loyal to Mr Assad and accused of systematically killing Syrian civilians. Two images showed a purported member with a large semi-automatic pistol. The weapon was later determined, by the newspaper Al Bawaba in Jordan, to be a blank-firing replica of an Israeli-made Desert Eagle pistol.
Al Bawaba chided the opposition for circulating such images, suggesting that overreaching risked eroding the anti-Assad fighters' public standing.
Western analysts similarly suggested that the video exposed potential pitfalls in the opposition's media campaign.
Rea more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/syrian-fighters-credibility-shot-to-pieces-by-toy-guns-posturing-20120615-20fcq.html
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