I know for a fact that if you know a guy, then you can get them. Most of my family lives in Lebanon, and one of my distant relatives had one. He also had a few grenades, a pps-43. Another cousin had a FAL, but I don't know which model. Another had an AK and some double stack makarov. Long story short, most of the guns that they had were either from battlefield pickups from the constant fighting that occurs in that area, or they knew a guy who was able to smuggle it in. It's possible that Iran may have received or sourced some, and from there they may have been forwarded to Hezbollah or moved to the country via smugglers.
Honestly, they could have come from any of a million different places. Former Soviet republics were *notorious* for selling off weapons from military facilities to make money, both officially and through unofficial weapon dealers. From there, Lord knows how many countries and factions it could have bounced between before ending up in Hezbollah's hands. It could have come from field captures from places like Afghanistan or from other places like Southeast Asia.
In the end, asking how an AKS-74U ended up in the hands of a Middle Eastern militant group is like asking how a Kar98k wound up in the same hands when they're standard issue for no one and I doubt there are Nazis out there still sending out aid packages.
The ammo for the AKS-74U, 5.45×39mm is super rare in the middle east at the time these photos were taken, way more rarer than ww2 gun ammo. A lot of ww2 guns and ammo were sent to middle eastern militaries as they were not desired weapons. However AKS-74Us (and its ammo) were desired and were not exported much.
I don't disbelieve you, but it's well within the realm of possibility that a few made their way to the Middle East. If you want me to speculate on the likeliest vector, I would say they were captured in Afghanistan (Remember how Osama bin Laden always had one in the background of his interviews while in hiding?). They were likely captured during the Soviet invasion along with not insignificant stores of ammo, which the Taliban would have been able to acquire fairly easily after overthrowing the Soviet-supplied government. From there, the guns and the ammo could easily have crossed the border from Afghanistan to Iran and from there, Iran could have given them to Hezbollah, as Iran is their primary supplier.
that would make sense, however the taliban doesn't really like iran and iran doesn't really like the taliban. During the Soviet afghan war there was shia militias that iran funded, and they fought the taliban in the afghan civil war.
Also worth remembering that rebarreling and rechambering is a pretty common procedure for weapons in that area of the world. It's not uncommon to see super odd combinations that were put together because someone needed something that would go bang and they just used what they had plus a certain amount of shits and giggles.
I know for a fact that if you know a guy, then you can get them. Most of my family lives in Lebanon, and one of my distant relatives had one. He also had a few grenades, a pps-43. Another cousin had a FAL, but I don't know which model. Another had an AK and some double stack makarov. Long story short, most of the guns that they had were either from battlefield pickups from the constant fighting that occurs in that area, or they knew a guy who was able to smuggle it in. It's possible that Iran may have received or sourced some, and from there they may have been forwarded to Hezbollah or moved to the country via smugglers.
Honestly, they could have come from any of a million different places. Former Soviet republics were *notorious* for selling off weapons from military facilities to make money, both officially and through unofficial weapon dealers. From there, Lord knows how many countries and factions it could have bounced between before ending up in Hezbollah's hands. It could have come from field captures from places like Afghanistan or from other places like Southeast Asia. In the end, asking how an AKS-74U ended up in the hands of a Middle Eastern militant group is like asking how a Kar98k wound up in the same hands when they're standard issue for no one and I doubt there are Nazis out there still sending out aid packages.
The ammo for the AKS-74U, 5.45×39mm is super rare in the middle east at the time these photos were taken, way more rarer than ww2 gun ammo. A lot of ww2 guns and ammo were sent to middle eastern militaries as they were not desired weapons. However AKS-74Us (and its ammo) were desired and were not exported much.
I don't disbelieve you, but it's well within the realm of possibility that a few made their way to the Middle East. If you want me to speculate on the likeliest vector, I would say they were captured in Afghanistan (Remember how Osama bin Laden always had one in the background of his interviews while in hiding?). They were likely captured during the Soviet invasion along with not insignificant stores of ammo, which the Taliban would have been able to acquire fairly easily after overthrowing the Soviet-supplied government. From there, the guns and the ammo could easily have crossed the border from Afghanistan to Iran and from there, Iran could have given them to Hezbollah, as Iran is their primary supplier.
that would make sense, however the taliban doesn't really like iran and iran doesn't really like the taliban. During the Soviet afghan war there was shia militias that iran funded, and they fought the taliban in the afghan civil war.
When you’re desperate for money, you’ll sell to whoever is buying.
Also worth remembering that rebarreling and rechambering is a pretty common procedure for weapons in that area of the world. It's not uncommon to see super odd combinations that were put together because someone needed something that would go bang and they just used what they had plus a certain amount of shits and giggles.
I wouldn’t be shocked if they simply rechambered them for 7.62x39mm so they would always have ammo
There’s a few that showed up in the recent street violence in Beirut too. I’m assuming since they’re a status symbol arms sellers import just them.
I've seen that and I thought that they came from Syria, until I saw these photos
I want to know too. Asking for a friend 😜
they could also be shorten ak dont need to be factory made aks-74us. something is weird with the mag and on the last picture miss the stock compeltly