Free Republic

ERBIL– Senior local officials in the northern Syrian city of Manbij said that both the US-led coalition and the Russian military police are operating in the area, including conducting regular patrols.Manbij Military Council (MMC) Commander Mohammed Abu Adel told Kurdistan 24 that there have been no changes on the ground regarding coordination with US forces and joint patrols, both of which continue.“We also have contact with Russian troops in Manbij. But there is only the internal security forces and Manbij Military Council forces that are deployed on the ground in Manbij,” Adel said.Since Monday, Russian military police units have been patrolling a 5...

A French soldier patrolling a business neighborhood west of Paris was stabbed in the neck and injured on Saturday by a man who fled the scene and is being sought by police, President Francois Hollande said. The 23-year-old was patrolling in uniform with two other soldiers as part of France's Vigipirate anti-terror surveillance plan when he was approached from behind around 6 p.m. and attacked with a knife or a box-cutter. A police union spokesman said surveillance footage of the attacker showed him as tall and bearded, aged about 35, possibly of North African origin and wearing a white Arab-style...

A local Iraqi man discusses security in the area with Iraqi Army Capt. Nomas Mohammed Hussein (left), and Lt. Mike Slapik (middle), an infantry platoon leader from Worcester, Mass., during a routine patrol in northwestern Baghdad, Nov. 3. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, MND-B. BAGHDAD — As Sgt. Kegan Cline observes a group of girls walking near Iraqi Army Soldiers on patrol here, Nov. 3, he knows his and the IA Soldiers' presence allows the girls to walk around safely. "It feels great that we're here serving a purpose," said Cline, a Worcester, Mass. native, assigned to Company A,...

U.S. and Iraqi forces patrolling Fallujah have discovered a weapons cache large enough to supply a nationwide “insurgency.” The weapons were found in central Fallujah’s Saad Abi Bin Waqas mosque, where Sunni cleric Abdullah al-Janabi preached hatred. How many times have Coalition forces been shot at from mosques or found weapons stockpiles hidden in them? Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army used Shiite Islam’s most holy shrine, the Imam Ali mosque, to wage their campaign of murder and mayhem in Najaf. Just how are all we infidels supposed to believe that Islam is truly a “religion of peace?” Just when...