There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Yemen weapons dealers selling machine guns on X

Weapons dealers in Yemen are openly using the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to sell Kalashnikovs, pistols, grenades and grenade-launchers.

The traders operate in the capital Sana’a and other areas under control of the Houthis, a rebel group backed by Iran and proscribed as terrorists by the US and Australian governments.

The advertisements are mostly in Arabic and aimed primarily at Yemeni customers in a country where the number of guns is often said to outnumber the population by three to one.

The BBC has found several examples online, offering weapons at prices in both Yemeni and Saudi riyals.

The words beside the weapons are designed to lure in the buyers.

“Premium craftsmanship and top-notch warranty,” says one advertisement. “The Yemeni-modified AK is your best choice.”

A demonstration video, filmed at night, shows the seller blasting off a 30-round magazine on full automatic.

Another offers sand-coloured Pakistani-produced Glock pistols for around $900 each.

sp3tr4l ,

Oh dear god you normally have to go pretty far into the dark web to see something like this.

Great work Elon, just amazing.

PP_BOY_ ,
@PP_BOY_@lemmy.world avatar

You really don’t this is some 2014-era “le dark webz” scaremongering shit. I guarantee you your local city (if you’re in the US) has a gun BST Facebook group lol. Not to mention that on the actual dark web, you’ll find gun trades honeypots within seconds

boonhet ,

How do you even find things that aren’t honeypots over there?

I’ve no interest in guns myself but honestly, everything is so suspicious over there… Cheap ass drugs, supposedly real US dollars, etc…

FireTower ,
@FireTower@lemmy.world avatar

Word of mouth

sp3tr4l ,

The difference being that those are local groups where you hopefully are not purchasing or selling a weapon to or from a group of people the United States Military is currently at war with (conducting kinetic operations, w/e) and has designated a terrorist group.

Yeah, its not hard to find places to buy guns on the internet.

It normally is fairly hard to find places to do so from terrorists or organized criminal groups overseas. Partially because, as you say, most of these you find quickly are honeypots, or scams, and finding ‘legit’ markets is not easy.

circuscritic , (edited )

This is bordering on clickbait, because of course weapons are being sold in some form or fashion at most forums or marketplace in Yemen.

It’s a country that has been wrecked by civil war and years of a genocidal air campaign by the Saudis, and now intermittent targeted strikes by American and British naval forces.

I would be shocked if most of those people aren’t also selling those openly at their local Bazaar or market.

TranquilTurbulence ,

I wonder if they also have anti-tank weapons available.

sp3tr4l , (edited )

There are grenades and grenade launchers that are or have specific anti tank designs (though they probably won’t work too well against any tank produced after the 70s), so, probably yes.

Also, while an RPG is not technically a ‘grenade launcher’ (as it fires in a basically flat, direct trajectory, compared to grenade launchers that lobbed more like artillery shells, indirectly in high arcs), a lot of less weapons literate people and journalists see ‘Rocket Propelled Grenade’ and might think it thus counts as a ‘grenade launcher’.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •