London - MENA
Daesh militants around the Iraqi city of Mosul have been hit by further British Royal Air Force (RAF) air strikes.
RAF Tornado and Reaper aircraft have continued to fly missions in western and northern Iraq to support the Iraqi government in their fight against the Daesh network, the British Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The most recent RAF strikes have been focused on terrorist positions around Mosul, where Daesh have been constructing fortifications against the increasingly successful offensives by the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi army.
Overnight on 19/20 March, a GR4 patrol came to the assistance of Peshmerga advancing north-east of Mosul. Working closely with the Kurdish forces, despite difficult weather, the aircraft were able to conduct precision attacks with two Paveway IV bombs against an Daesh heavy machine gun and weapon positions.
In Baghdad, a British military team is leading coalition work to establish a program to train and equip the Iraqi forces to deal more effectively with improvised explosive devices, increasingly left behind by Daesh as they are forced back by government troops.
Under the program, British instructors will primarily teach techniques to the Kurdish Peshmerga in the north, with other coalition partners providing instruction to the Iraqi army in central Iraq.