US-led coalition troops have adapted their training for Iraqi forces to teach them how to breach jihadist defences in larger-scale assaults on ISIS strongholds, officers said Wednesday.
ISIS, which overran large parts of Iraq in 2014, has saturated territory it controls with bombs, booby-traps and other obstacles that Iraqi forces must break through to drive the jihadists back, AFP reports.
Military operations in Ramadi, which was recaptured from ISIS in December, as well as other cities and towns showed the need for training in which soldiers combine different capabilities to breach ISIS defenses.
The training "is based on the lessons that we learned watching the challenges in Ramadi... and Tikrit and Sinjar and Baiji," said Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, the commander of the international operation against ISIS.
"It's not about defeating IEDs (improvised explosive devices); it's about breaching obstacles," MacFarland said following a training exercise at the Besmaya base near Baghdad.
During the exercise, soldiers from the 72nd Brigade combined mortar fire for smoke cover, engineers equipped with mine-clearing charges and bulldozers to open gaps in defences and infantry in armoured vehicles to provide covering fire and then advance toward the objective.