Direct proof of use
Conflict Armament Research documented 7.62x54R ammunition among weapons and ammunition recovered from Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria during field investigations from July 2014 to November 2017. CAR reported that, unless otherwise specified, the materiel discussed in its report was recovered from Islamic State forces and physically documented by its investigators.
The report's ammunition appendix lists 11,112 units of 7.62x54R ammunition in the Iraq-and-Syria sample: 4,964 units documented in Iraq and 6,148 in Syria. CAR also identified specific 7.62x54R cartridge evidence, including Chinese Factory 61 cartridges produced in 2006 and Russian Novosibirsk Cartridge Plant cartridges produced in 2013.
Sources: Weapons of the Islamic State
Timeline
CAR's field-investigation window began in July 2014, the same period in which Islamic State forces held or contested major areas in Iraq and Syria. The report says its teams deployed along Islamic State front lines in Iraq from July 2014 to November 2017 and in Syria from July 2014 to September 2015.
In February 2015, CAR documented 7.62x54R evidence in Kobane after the Islamic State siege of the city. That evidence included boxes of Serbian 7.62x54R ball ammunition originally supplied to the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq in December 2004, a Bulgarian MG-M1 7.62x54R machine gun, and Chinese and Russian 7.62x54R cartridges recorded in the same city.
Sources: Weapons of the Islamic State
Narrative
The 7.62x54mmR cartridge appears in CAR's Islamic State evidence as both loose or boxed ammunition and as the cartridge used by medium machine guns and other 7.62x54R-chambered weapons. CAR's baseline weapon data identifies 7.62x54R medium machine guns among the top five common weapon types documented in Iraq and Syria.
The strongest public evidence for this cartridge in the conflict is physical recovery and documentation rather than a named firing incident. CAR connected specific 7.62x54R cartridges to documentation sites in Kobane, Tikrit, Al Hasakah, Al Qamishli, and Qaraqosh, and its appendix shows the calibre as one of the largest small-calibre ammunition categories in the recovered Islamic State sample.
Sources: Weapons of the Islamic State
