On April 29th 2019, the IS Media outfit Al-Furqan Media Foundation released a video of the fugitive then-leader of IS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, entitled “In the Hospitality of the Emir of the Believers”, intended to prove his health and control over the group. In the video, which we now know was filmed in a 6x8m tunnel hideout in the Anbar desert of Iraq, the viewer can clearly see a stubby carbine to the left of al-Baghdadi.
The gun in question is a AKS-74U Carbine made after 1986 in the Tula factory in Russia. In a fascinating turn of events, it was recovered by Iraqi security forces in a remote location in al-Qaim, Iraq, close to the Syrian border, in mid-2019.
