Iraqi forces fighting ISIL have received significant air support from Royal Air Force combat aircraft according to information released by the MoD.
The following is an excerpt from a press release from the Ministry of Defence, the original can be found here
Thursday 20 August, a Tornado patrol located two mechanical excavator vehicles near Mosul, which the ISIL terrorists were using to construct fortified positions to defend against the Kurdish peshmerga’s recent successful offensives in the area. Both of the vehicles were destroyed by our aircraft using Brimstone missiles.
Further south, an RAF Reaper was providing support that day to Iraqi army units; a large truck-bomb was spotted, positioned on the central reservation of a major road to threaten any advance by the Iraqi security forces along that route. A Hellfire missile destroyed the vehicle.
The Reaper’s crew then conducted surveillance against a building suspected of being a bomb-making location, where armed terrorists were seen moving a large number of sacks of home-made explosives, and preparing improvised explosive devices. Successful Hellfire attacks were conducted against the facility and the bomb-makers.
Reapers continued to provide close air support to the Iraqi troops on Friday 21 August, and Hellfires were used to destroy two ISIL fighting positions, including one heavy machine-gun team that had opened fire on the Iraqi forces.
The following day, a Tornado patrol near Ar Rutbah located another pair of engineering vehicles which were being used by the terrorists to construct defences, and these were both destroyed by direct hits from Brimstone missiles.
On Monday 24 August, a Reaper helped a coalition fast jet to successfully target a well-concealed terrorist sniper who was firing on Iraqi security forces, and the next day saw another Reaper conduct three Hellfire attacks on terrorist positions.
The Reapers were particularly active on Wednesday 26 August supporting the Kurdish peshmerga, and conducted a total of five successful strikes on terrorist groups attempting to manoeuvre on foot and in vehicles in the open desert.
