The hell cannon (Arabic: مدفع جهنم) is a general name used to describe a class of mortar-like improvised firearms in-use by insurgent forces during the Syrian Civil War, mainly in the Aleppo area.

[3] Manufacture of the cannon moved to Aleppo after Khaled Hayani – leader of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Badr Martyrs' Brigade – appropriated the design.

[3] As the Islamic State (IS) became more powerful in the region, it negotiated with local arms makers for making the projectiles and a grassroots weapons industry began to emerge.

[3] According to journalist Basel Dayoub in Al Akhbar: In Aleppo, the Hell Cannon is associated with one of the most famous fighters in Anadan, named Jamil Kadour, who had close ties with Khaled Hayani.

An opposition source said Kadour was killed because he refused to work with IS outside Anadan, demanded exorbitant prices for repairing weapons, and equipping the Hell Cannon and preferred to manufacture arms for their arch-enemy, Khaled Hayani.

[3] According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as of December 2014, hell cannons were "wildly inaccurate" and have killed over 300 civilians, most of them in Aleppo.

[3] An unnamed variation uses a projectile similar to the hell cannon (a blue gas cylinder) but the tail fins form a flat base.

[3] However, an April 2015 video showed a quad hell cannon being used by the Levant Front in the province of Aleppo, in the village of Bashkoy [ar].

The FSA Al-Rahman Legion deployed a series of breech-loaded cannons mounted on an hydraulic elevation system on the back of a truck and fires with a pull-string.

Albeit described by some Western mass media as a mysterious 19th-century antique cannon,[9] the gun is in reality a modern improvised artillery piece.

[10] In June 2015, a video was posted online showing a large compressed air cannon in Daraa operated by Ahrar al-Sham.

Volcano Rockets were capable of destroying entire housing blocks with a direct hit, and were a decisive factor during the 2013 Second Battle of al-Qusayr.