Roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices pose a particular danger to advancing Iraqi forces and the U.S. advisers who are with them. The militants’ signature battlefield tactic, the weapons offered a glimpse at what Iraqi forces can expect as they close in on the extremists’ biggest urban bastion. Iraqi forces crumbled that summer, beating a humiliating retreat and leaving weapons and vehicles behind. Ali Saad, a 26-year-old special forces soldier, said Kurdish forces had asked them to take down the religious banners, but they refused. We said we’re not militias, we are Iraqi forces, and these are our beliefs,” he said.

Source: National Post October 21, 2016 13:52 UTC