On Friday 24 July, a Reaper was again patrolling over western Iraq, providing overwatch for Iraqi troops. The aircraft’s crew spotted an anti-aircraft gun being used by ISIL to fire on the Iraqi forces, and promptly destroyed the gun with a Hellfire. A second Hellfire accounted for a machine-gun position.

The Reaper also helped coordinate a series of successful air strikes by several coalition jets, which destroyed two terrorist positions as well as a pair of armoured personnel carriers, one of which appeared to have been converted into a large car-bomb.