 One estimate suggested that about 11,000 AK-63 rifles may have been sent to the region over a five-year period.Since the end of the Cold War, the AK-63 has also turned up regularly in the hands of militants in Somalia and Zambia, and was also purchased by Croatian forces for use during the Croatian War of Independence.Photographic evidence shows that the AK-63 is one the primary rifles in use by the Kurdish YPG/YPJ and PKK forces in Syria and Iraq.