( CNN ) -- `` These are the explosive devices , they are all made locally , '' Captain Daoud Hassan Mahmoud explains , crouching down and pointing to the metal cylinders , perhaps just 20cm in diameter -- dozens of them are lined up next to each other . The cylinders are packed with a deadly concoction of fertilizer , explosives and other chemicals bought from the local market . `` I do n't want to name them so that the government does n't confiscate them from the shops , '' Mahmoud says . Placed on the top of the cylinder thick nuts and bolts -- which will turn into lethal shards of shrapnel once detonated : Crude , but highly effective . `` This one would blow up a jeep or a pick-up , '' he says , pointing to two of the cylinders which a rebel is roughly taping together , in the final stages of preparation . `` For a tank or an armored vehicle we use six or eight . '' Outgunned by Assad 's forces , the captain 's team -- the Daoud brigade -- is resorting to Iraq-style guerilla warfare , turning to roadside bombs and , in at least one case , a suicide bombing . Escalating violence limits U.N. observer mission in Syria , official says . Clips said to be of the brigade 's operations are often posted to YouTube , starting off with a Quranic verse , followed by stylized graphics of the brigade 's name , and its division -- the Damascus Hawks . Hardly audible below the music -- a jihadi chorus meant to motivate -- a voice narrates each attack . The videos are all very similar in tone to those that came out of Iraq when al-Qaeda-allied insurgents there took on the US military . In that battlefield the IED proved to be the most effective weapons against American armor . In Syria today it is also becoming the weapon of choice . Mahmoud says they have received no outside help . `` Our funding is dependent on donations , a small collection of money . And what we 're able to capture from the Syrian military . We have not received any help even from the Free Syrian Army leadership or the Syrian National Council , '' he claims . And so , he says , they have had to improvise . Is Syria in a civil war ? `` We only have AK 47s , sniper rifles , machine guns , '' Mahmoud explains . `` And the regime is fighting us with tanks and rockets . We do n't have heavy weapons . We 're relying on mines and on making bombs . '' Mahmoud says he commands 300 men . The Damascus Hawks Division is made up of around 8,000 , operating mostly in Idlib province . There is no way of confirming such claims . The division , he says , was first made up of defectors and civilians and has gradually increased in numbers . He says his men are moderate Islamists , who follow the military council of the Free Syrian Army , fighting for democracy . `` As military men , we do n't want to see one in power , '' he says . `` We want a democratically elected president , we have to separate the military from the presidency . `` We are also fighting corruption and those opportunists that are in the Idlib countryside , '' he continues , referring to people he says are capitalizing on the uprising to wreak havoc and carry out operations in the name of the opposition . The men look relaxed as they calmly mill around among the olive groves , AK 47s slung over their shoulders . This is territory they control . They are a ragtag collection of rebel fighters but in this part of Idlib province in Syria , they boast of taking the fight to the Syrian regime . Just back from a mission , one of the fighters explains that it failed . `` We set up an ambush against Assad 's army using IEDs but they received intelligence about our plan and rerouted the convoy . '' Another claims his unit was successful . `` We destroyed an armored vehicle , '' he boasts . This is now the Syrian battlefield . Fifteen months on , peaceful protests have morphed into more of an insurgency that threatens to become an all out war . U.S. military completes initial planning for Syria .
Syrian rebels outgunned by the regime 's military forces . Fighters are exposed to Iraqi insurgent and suicide bombs . Devices made from pipes packed with fertilizer , cement and nuts and bolts .