The Arkenstone blog published this propaganda photo by the Iranian insurgent group Jaish ul-Adl (“Army of Justice”) that operates in the South East of the country. There is not much information about this group online. They formed last year and seem to be a generic Sunni insurgent group on a “holy war” against the Shia majority. The Iranians claim they are being funded by Pakistan. In October they attacked a police station killing 14 police officers near the Iran-Pakistan border.

Why the above photo is interesting is that the two men in the foreground are holding expensive civilian firearms. The gun on the left is a suppressed Steyr rifle and the man on the right is holding a Walther G22 bullpup chambered in .22 LR. In mountainous terrain, that .22 LR must be close to worthless. It is a novel and fun rifle to shoot but nobody has ever claimed it is an accurate rifle.

I do wonder if these men are weekend warriors taking their favorite hunting rifles into the mountains to play Cops n’ Insurgents, after which they go back to their dreary office jobs and dream of jihad. Photos published by the group (see above) after the police station massacre show the usual suspects looking like disheveled desert nomads carrying rusty pre-Revolution weapons. They are not carrying expensive consumer rifles while wearing pressed uniforms and quality mountain clothing.

Thanks to Nic for the tip.