Free Republic

Moscow is looking for help from foreign fighters to take cities including Kyiv WASHINGTON—Moscow is recruiting Syrians skilled in urban combat to fight in Ukraine as Russia’s invasion is poised to expand deeper into cities, according to U.S. officials. An American assessment indicates that Russia, which has been operating inside Syria since 2015, has in recent days been recruiting fighters from there, hoping their expertise in urban combat can help take Kyiv and deal a devastating blow to the Ukraine government, according to four American officials. The move points to a potential escalation of fighting...

Excerpt - A Kurdish army brigade in northern Iraq was undergoing intensive urban combat training as it readied for deployment in the latest Baghdad security operation and was expected to take on the capital's Mahdi Army Shiite militia, its commander said on Saturday. Meanwhile, three Iraqi generals told The Associated Press that the Iraqi commander who will lead the overall Baghdad security mission was the government's second choice and only got the job after the U.S. military objected to the first officer named to the post by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. In the northern city of Irbil, Brig. Gen. Nazir...

William S. Lind: How NOT to Use Light Armored Vehicles -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Author William Sturgiss Lind, Director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, born July 9, 1947. He graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1969 and received a Master's Degree in History from Princeton University in 1971. He worked as a legislative aide for armed services for Senator Robert Taft, Jr., of Ohio from 1973 through 1976 and held a similar position with Senator Gary Hart of Colorado from 1977 through 1986. He...

Training: With Somalia on their minds, soldiers of the 101st Airborne undergo a refresher course in urban combat. By Scott Calvert, Sun Foreign Staff CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait - If this had been Baghdad, Spc. Jim Kaminski might be a dead man. As it was, he got off rather lightly. "Kaminski! Do push-ups!" screamed Staff Sgt. Damian Mackie. "You didn't point your weapon toward that corner once!" Kaminski, in full battle gear, including flak jacket, helmet and assault pack, gently laid his black machine gun on the sand and did as he was told. On a rare day with a cobalt...