page_title: Insurgency weapons and tactics
section_title: Improvised mortars
hierarchical_section_title: Insurgency weapons and tactics / Other insurgency weapons / Improvised mortars
caption_attribution_description: Improvised mortars in Batey ha-Osef Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel.
context_page_description: Insurgency weapons and tactics are weapons and tactics, most often involving firearms or explosive devices, intended for use by insurgents to engage in guerrilla warfare against an occupier, or for use by rebels against an established government. One type of insurgency weapon are "homemade" firearms made by non-professionals, such as the Błyskawica submachine gun produced in underground workshops by the Polish resistance movement. Another insurgency weapon is a sanitized weapon, which is a weapon of any sort that has had normal markings, such as the manufacturer's name and/or serial number, omitted or obscured in an attempt to hide the origin of the weapon.
  A weapon that is part of the conventional military arsenal, but which has been taken up to great effect by insurgents, is the RPG. Two examples of an improvised weapon used by insurgents would be the improvised explosive devices used in Iraq and the Molotov cocktails used against vehicles and tanks. Two tactics used by many insurgents are assassinations and suicide bomb attacks.
context_section_description: Improvised, or "home-made", mortars have been used by insurgent groups, usually to attack fortified military installations or to terrorize civilians. They are usually constructed from heavy steel piping mounted on a steel frame. These weapons may fire standard mortar rounds, purpose made shells, re-purposed gas cylinders filled with explosives and shrapnel, or any other type of improvised explosive, incendiary or chemical munitions. These were called "Barrack Busters" by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). They are known as "Hell Cannons" in the Syrian Civil War, where observers have noted that they are "wildly inaccurate" and responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths.
caption: Improvised mortars in Batey ha-Osef Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel.
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