Soldiers, some from Cumbria, have set off to spend Christmas in war-torn Iraq as part of Britain's effort to combat Islamic State terrorists.

Around 40 men of Blenheim Company, the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, gathered their kitbags at Weeton Barracks, Lancs, to begin the long journey to the middle east, where they will spend the next six months.

Among them is Corporal Kyle Inglesfield, 25, from Whitehaven.

He said:"Last Christmas I was helping with the floods so I was about waist deep in water last Christmas Day, so it will be my second Christmas away.

"I don't mind being deployed away, my family don't like it but they understand it's going to happen with the job. This year we had a fake Christmas, so we had the full shebang in the middle of November."

They are amongst 150 from the battalion deploying as part of a 500 strong British Army force training Iraqi and Kurdish security forces.

As part of the UK's role in the 68-member Global Coalition committed to defeating IS, the 2 LANCS soldiers will provide protection to other British troops training the local security forces in infantry skills, weapons maintenance, medical, engineering and counter IED measures.

The troops are light infantrymen, used to operating on foot but have been on exercise with the Foxhound patrol vehicles, which they will use while moving around Iraq.

The vehicle is said to be "cutting edge" and provides unprecedented levels of blast protection for its size and weight, according to the Army.

Many of the same troops in the battalion deploying to Iraq spent last Christmas helping battle the flooding in northern England.

Major Nick Higgins, the commanding officer of B Company troops, said: "Soldiers join up to go on operations and they want to deploy; so the Company's motivation and morale is high. This operation is very different to what we've done before and that makes it interesting.

"As light role infantry we are used to being on our feet, but the new Foxhound vehicles are excellent and they allow us to move around safely.

"We are operationally experienced, with recent tours in Afghanistan, but this is a very different role.

"The training towards the tour has been a thorough and steady progression, including vehicle qualifications and working with the attached arms to understand what they are doing.

"This final exercise has brought everything together to test us for the worst case scenarios that we might face."