case study: weapon and explosive capabilities of pkkdrk-risksecurity.com/upl/files/casestudy/c3-pkk...

© 2017 Copyright DRK Risk & Security Consulting, Ankara All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without the prior consent of DRK.

DRK CASE STUDY

Weapon and explosive capabilities of PKK

Weapon and explosive capabilities of PKK in General

As an armed rebel group operating in the South Eastern Turkey on the basis of the

Guerilla Warfare, PKK have prioritized the advantage of high mobility, agility and

concealment during its armed activities. Therefore PKK has been mostly observed to

employ light and small arms in their offensive operations while it has been employing

heavy arms rather for defensive aims. However, it was also observed especially in

number of attacks to military installations along the Iraqi border between the years 2006

– 2011 that PKK employed heavy arms in mass numbers, primary of them being a

Russian made heavy anti-aircraft machine gun widely known with the name of “Doshka”,

82 mm. Mortars and Katyusha (Grad type BM 21 variant) missiles. Apart from this, it is

also well known that PKK, although very rarely, employs some shoulder fired, low

altitude anti-aircraft missiles against the Turkish air assets during the clashes both in

Turkey and Northern Iraq. (SA-7 Strella). Finally, there are some news (not solidly

confirmed though) that PKK improved its weapon capacity by obtaining weapons of Free

Syrian Army and acquiring some weapons from some European Countries.1

1 Some news mention that weapons sent by a European country to Northern Iraq to be used in the fight against

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have reportedly fallen into the wrong hands, as the

weapons given to Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga troops have been seized by PKK. (Der Spiegel) The report says the

weapons seized by the PKK include Milan antitank missiles and DM51A1 cluster hand bombs.


PKK Weapon Inventory

Weapon & Specialties Visual

AK-47 7.62 mm. Automatic Infantry Rifle: Effective range of 300 meters

7.62 mm. PKM Machine Gun: Maximum range of 1000 meters

7.62 mm. BKC (PKMS) Machine Gun: Effective range of 1500 meters


7.62 mm. Kannas (Dragunov) Anti-Personnel Sniper Rifle: Effective range of 800 meters

AMSR (Zagros) anti-material sniper rifle (14.5x115 Soviet made)

New propaganda photos from PKK show that the insurgents are employing a new anti-material rifle. The rifles appear to be chambered in a large anti-material caliber, possibly 50 BMG or 14.5x114mm Russian.

12.7x108 mm. Doshka Heavy Anti-Aircraft Machine Gun: Effective range of 2000 meters – Maximum range: 3000 meters.


KPV-14.5 Heavy Machine Gun:

A Soviet designed 14.5x114 mm caliber heavy machine gun, with a range of 3,000 meters horizontally and 2,000 meters vertically against low flying planes.

RPG – 7B and RPG – 11 Rocket Launcher: 40 mm - Effective range of 500 meters – Maximum range: 750 meters. Piercing capability: 1,5 - 2 meter thick concrete wall and 300 – 750 mm steel armor.

82 mm. Mortar: Maximum range differs between 5-8 kms depending on the model


Above-given weapons have been constantly used by PKK terrorists. Besides this

common inventory, some weapons, captured by security forces in southeast Turkey,

seems to be added PKK’s military stock recently. Ongoing war in Syria and the

complexity of actors involved in wars have culminated in ending of aforementioned

weapons with PKK. These weapons are listed below.

Weapon & Specialties Visual

AT4 / M136 Antitank Grenade launcher: Effective range is up to 150 meters against moving targets, about 300 meters against stationary targets.

The Metis-M1 portable anti-tank missile system: Effective range: up to 2000 meters.


T-40 grenade launcher: T-40 is a single shot weapon that fires 40x46mm low velocity grenades. The effective range against point targets is 150 m.

9K38 Igla - Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS): Effective range of fire is up to 5200 meters.

The MILAN portable, medium-range anti-tank missile system: Effective range is up to 2000 meters with armor penetration of 350 millimeters.


M16 A2 Assault Rifle: Effective Range is 550 meters for a Point Target, and 800 meters for an Area Target.

Due to the war environment in Syria and Iraq, PKK’s weapon and ammunition inventory

has varied and sophisticated. Recently captured weapons –above listed- demonstrates

shift from conventional weapons to modern ones. Yet, this is not only because weapons

are handed over PKK militants but because arms supplier countries are in close contact

with PKK. The origin of weapons are Sweden, Russia, Serbia and United States. In this

complex web of relations, PKK is seeking to enhance its military stock with new

weapons and ammunition.

PKK Explosive employment

General

PKK has been observed to increasingly employ the explosives in the recent escalation

of terrorist attacks after the 7 June 2015 elections. According to the experiences on

traditional PKK explosive attacks, a wide variety of explosives such as;

Anti-personnel and anti-tank mines,

Rocket and artillery shells (obtained generally from Saddam Hussein’s army),

Kitchen-purpose LPG tubes,

Natural fertilizers mixed with fuel oil,

TNT or TNT variations obtained by the mixture of nitric acid and glycerin,

Variety of mixtures of; alcohol, ammoniac, ammonium nitrate (natural fertilizer),

magnesium, sulfuric acid, mercury, glycerin, sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate

(derived from natural fertilizer).


PKK has also been observed to reinforce the blast effect of above mentioned explosive

materials by adding C4 (RDX based – Composite 4 plastic material) and A4 plastic

explosive into the device installations.

Explosion Mechanisms and Methods

Remote Controlled (wired)

Performed via cable between the

triggering mechanism and the

detonator. Mostly used on the roads.

Remote Controlled (wireless)

These mechanisms are very largely

applied by PKK by establishing two

receiver/transmitter radio devices

between the triggering mechanism and

the detonator. Mostly used on the

roads.

Remote Controlled (mixture of wired and

wireless mechanisms)

These mechanisms are also largely applied by

PKK in order to avoid the preventive effects of

the Jammers having largely been used by

Turkish Army. Mostly used on the roads. In

this variation, the receiver antenna in the

mechanism is extended by a cable several

hundred meters beyond the effective range of

the jammer devices.


Time fused – self destructive

Mostly being used in the sabotage

attacks performed generally with car-

loaded explosives. The amount of the

explosive used has been observed to

exceed up to two tons of improvised

mixtures of ammonium nitrate (natural

fertilizer), magnesium, sulfuric acid,

.mercury, glycerin, sodium nitrate and

potassium nitrate etc., being reinforced

with A4 or C4 type plastic explosives to

speed up the explosive chain and to

increase the blast effect.

Collision based (quick time) self-destructive

Mostly being used in the sabotage attacks performed generally with car-loaded

explosives. The amount of the explosive used has been observed to exceed up to two

tons of improvised mixtures of ammonium nitrate (natural fertilizer), magnesium, sulfuric

acid, mercury, glycerin, sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate etc., being reinforced with

A4 or C4 type plastic explosives to speed up the explosive chain and to increase the

blast effect.

Some examples of PKK instruction notes on the production of these materials are

provided in the below figures.

case study: weapon and explosive capabilities of pkkdrk-risksecurity.com/upl/files/casestudy/c3-pkk...

Documents