Gun Id - Operation Sangaris
 

Hi guys, I need some help with the Id of this Ak variant from Central African Republic (taken form the french intervention some days ago):

http://i890.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps5eb18a9a.jpg

Source: ZM

Any idea?

It looks like some sort of Galil. Any better shots?

Pretty sure it is a Zastava M21S, a 5.56x45mm Serbian variant.

Also, I'm guessing from the weapon choice and the badge on the beret that this is a Cameroonian soldier. Is this actually in the CAR, or is this one of the French staging areas in Cameroon?

Pic was taken in Bangui, CAR capital. And according to this, it makes sense.

Here's some other interesting weapons:

A black FN SCAR-L being used by a soldier from the Groupement des Commandos Parachutistes:

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/8728/dntw.jpg

The FAMAS FELIN:

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3347/l9df.jpg

Some of the Seleka soldiers are armed with Vektor R4s:

http://imageshack.us/a/img811/5075/0phr.jpg

Interesting. When I was in Afghanistan in 2008 / 2009 all I saw the French troops (Chasseurs Alpins mostly) carrying were the FAMAS F1.

I think this has only started being introduced in the last couple of years, before that it was the F1 Infanterie (the version with the rail retrofitted to the carry handle). Is this actually called the "FAMAS Surbaisse" though? This rifle has the FELIN integration so is a different rifle I think (possibly called "FAMAS FELIN" but don't know if this is a real name). This is a picture of troops training to deploy to Afghansitan in 2011 and the soldier shown has a Surbaisse which looks like this above variant but without the FELIN integrated forward grip:http://imageshack.us/a/img141/9241/p...fghanistan.jpg.
On the topic of the FAMAS, anyone know why they stuck with the proprietary mag well on the FELIN variant rather than switching to a STANAG? The prototypes have switched back and forth between the two as it has evolved so they have obviously had trouble making their mind up. Are these newly built or retrofitted from old F1s (I hope not as the F1 has some pretty serious mechanical issues)? I also enjoy the fact with the FELIN variant that it has all the buttons and what not in the handle, which are currently totally useless as the most I have ever seen them deployed with at this point is an EOTech.

You are correct, the FAMAS Surbaisse seems to refer to the rifles with the lower carry handle, while the ones with the FELIN integration are just known as the "FAMAS FELIN". Four types of FAMAS (FAMAS F1, FAMAS Infanterie, FAMAS Surbaisse, FAMAS FELIN) can be seen among the units participating in Operation Sangaris.

Here's an example of the FAMAS Surbaisse:
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/3113/9cod.jpg