Motorcycles a key insurgent tool

According to a report in the UAE-based National newspaper, cheap and rickety Chinese-made motorcycles – ones that would normally be limited to more routine pursuits -- have become the go-to apparatus for the insurgency currently being waged in Syria.

Since demonstrations against the government of the president, Bashar Al Assad, began in March, 2011, motorcycles have become crucial to the insurgency emanating from farming villages in northern Syria – partly because the price of petrol has skyrocketed.

According to the National report, rebel fighters have been using the bikes to mount surprise attacks on government forces, spy on soldiers and shuttle reinforcements to the front lines.

The bikes typically cost around $A175, and are then customised into urban-warfare fighters, with Ak-47s and rocket-propelled grenades fired from them.

Once stifling taxes and duties restricted the import of motorcycles, but a black-market facilitated by government officials still allowed people to buy bikes – a small bribe and a four-week wait was all it took. And the ultimate irony is that these machines are now being used in an attempt to topple the current regime.

But that still doesn’t get away from the reliability issues.

"Yes, of course I realise their importance for the revolution," mechanic Mustafa Mohammed was quoted as saying in the National. "But believe me, any other time, and I'd tell you to run away from them.”