Direct proof of use
Bellingcat documented AK-74M and AKS-74U rifles in Syrian Civil War service with Syrian government formations and Islamic State fighters. Its 2015 account described the AK-74M as widely present with the Syrian Arab Army and, to a lesser extent, the Republican Guard after additional Russian deliveries reached Syria during the war.
The same investigation identified the Republican Guard's 104th Brigade receiving AK-74M and AKS-74U rifles before deploying to Deir ez-Zor against Islamic State forces, and it described Islamic State as a major AK-74M operator among factions fighting in Syria. Amnesty International separately reported that Islamic State used and possessed large stocks of small arms across Iraq and Syria, including weapons sourced from Syrian military stocks and armed opposition supply channels.
Sources: From Russia with Love, Syria's AK-74Ms, Taking Stock: The Arming of Islamic State
Timeline
The AK-74M's Syrian history began before the uprising. Bellingcat traced Syria's first small AK-74M batch to the late 1990s and described a 2000 public appearance in Damascus, but its wartime significance came from larger acquisitions in the years before and during the civil war.
By 2015, Bellingcat described several Russian Navy landing-ship deliveries that had brought AK-74M batches to Syria in the preceding years. Those deliveries allowed broader Syrian Arab Army distribution, while the Republican Guard's 104th Brigade took AK-74M and AKS-74U rifles to Deir ez-Zor. Amnesty's December 2015 report placed Islamic State's Syrian and Iraqi arsenals in the same period, describing weapons observed in Islamic State possession and probable acquisition from Syrian military stocks, Iraqi stocks, illicit markets, and battlefield capture.
Sources: From Russia with Love, Syria's AK-74Ms, Taking Stock: The Arming of Islamic State
Narrative
In Syrian government service, the AK-74 family was not a universal replacement for older 7.62 mm Kalashnikov rifles. Bellingcat described the AK-74M as initially limited to special units and high-value guard roles, then becoming more visible after later Russian deliveries supported wider Syrian Arab Army issue. The report noted AK-74M rifles fitted with optics, night-vision sights, and GP-30M underbarrel grenade launchers in Syrian use.
The Republican Guard evidence is more specific. Bellingcat linked the 104th Brigade to a sizeable AK-74M and AKS-74U batch before its Deir ez-Zor deployment against Islamic State fighters, and it noted AK-74M and AKS-74U use around Brigadier General Issam Zahreddine's guard detail. That places both the full-length AK-74M and the compact AKS-74U in a frontline Syrian government formation.
Islamic State possession and use is documented differently. Bellingcat described Islamic State as a major AK-74M operator in Syria and connected many of its rifles to captured or transferred Syrian stocks. Amnesty International's broader 2015 arms-proliferation report described Islamic State weapons observed across Iraq and Syria and identified Syrian military stocks, armed opposition supply channels, capture, sale, smuggling routes, and illicit markets as relevant sources for the group's arsenal.
Sources: From Russia with Love, Syria's AK-74Ms, Taking Stock: The Arming of Islamic State
