A switch in tactics has provided the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) with some victories in their battle against the so-called Islamic State (IS), notably in Ramadi, says the US military.
The change came in the late summer.
Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland took over the US-led coalition against IS known as Operation Inherent Resolve in September.
Upon assuming his new post, the general began studying what worked and what had not worked in the fight against IS up to that point.
Recognising that IS was a different enemy from the one faced during the last decade, he ordered an adjustment to the training and equipment that was being provided to the Iraqis.
As a result, in the past few weeks, the ISF has closed in on the city of Ramadi - which fell in an embarrassing defeat in May.
Colonel Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the US Department of Defense, said in a BBC interview that the success is due in large part to conventional warfare tactics recently employed by the ISF, not the counter-insurgency style tactics they were trained by the Americans to use for several years.
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