Free Republic

Come home, come home, Ye who are weary, come home; ...Most Reverend Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Diocese for Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq officiated standing directly beneath the dome under the Chaldean cross. Speaking in both Arabic and English, Bishop Warduni thanked those American soldiers sitting in the pews for their sacrifices. Again and again, throughout the service, he thanked the Americans. .........Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize...

• Ops Update • British VIP Visit ImageWatch Now Ops Update – Iraqi Security Forces strengths determined. British VIP Visit – Des Brown visits British Troops Fallujah Cement – Restoration of Cement Factory will help city. The “Raid Report” – Daily update on Iraqi and Coalition security progress. News Desk – Headlines from around the region. CSAR Maintainers – Maintenance team helps saves lives. Rules of Engagement – Soldiers build relationships with local citizens

THE DAY OF AUGUST 26, 2007, began like any other for the soldiers of Charlie Company, 2-505 Parachute Infantry Regiment (from the 82nd Airborne Division) -- with a mission in the city. Over a year into its deployment to Samarra, Iraq, and now working on the three-month extension announced by Secretary of Defense Gates in the spring, the company knew the city like the back of its collective hands and had its operational routine down to a science, whatever the mission it might be tasked with. On this morning, that mission was to establish a defensive perimeter around a block...

The US military claimed on Thursday that American and Iraqi forces had arrested an alleged financier for al-Qaeda who had received $100m from donors outside Iraq to fund insurgent operations. Military officials have long attributed al-Qaeda's expansion in Iraq to its access to external finance, but rarely release figures that give insight into the scale of the operation that they say that they are facing. The $100m (€71m, £50m) sum - far greater than amounts usually associated with Sunni insurgents - had been received over the summer from "terrorist supporters who cross the Iraq border illegally or fly into Iraq...