
Photos of Israel's Lions of Jordan battalion have emerged showing heavily armed women taking part in combat training before they are deployed to potentially dangerous postings.

The Lions of Jordan is one of three existing co-ed reconnaissance units that have a number of female enlistees that guard Israel's borders with Egypt and Jordan.

In addition to the Caracal, Bardalas and Lions of Jordan units a yet to be named fourth mixed sex battalion will be inaugurated this month and be ready for potential combat in November.

Around 1,200 young Israeli women are expected to volunteer for combat positions this year and those not deployed in combat-intelligence posts are set to be stationed in the Jordan Valley with the artillery corps or infantry on the Jordanian border.

Ready: Female members of the Lions of Jordan hold aloft their machine guns during training near the West Bank village of Bardale, east of Jenin

Clean: Two soldiers clean their faces in the field before their deployment to the often dangerous border with Jordan

According to the IDF, 38% of female recruits ask to be assigned to combat roles which is one of the reasons that the army is making more of the roles available to women.

A senior officer with the military, who asked not to be named, told The Jerusalem Post that including more women on the front-line is a 'smart' move.

The officer said: 'What a woman brings to the battlefield is her maturity and calm nature and we need this.'A woman doesn't need to act like a man, carrying 45 kilos [99 lb], for example, she needs to be a woman bringing her unique strength to the unit in the field.'

Action: A female solider crawls along the ground while armed with a heavy sniper rifle

Together: The number of female soldiers in the Israeli army is expected to rise by around 1,200 this year with the inauguration of the fourth battalion

Over the past four years the number of female soldiers in combat positions has risen by 3% however female soldiers still only amount to around 7% of all troops with the artillery corps or in foot soldier roles.

The IDF was one of the world's first militaries to open combat positions to women some 20 years ago and has since made roughly 90% of roles available to both sexes.

These include 'combat roles in the navy, Home Front Command, Artillery Corps and Military Police in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria],' according to the Post.

More than 500 women Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat while serving in the country’s military.

In January three women soldiers died when a Palestinian driver intentionally rammed his truck into a group of troops all in their early 20s.

The lorry was driven into the fighters on a picture-postcard promenade overlooking Jerusalem’s Old City, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, near a park called the Peace Forest.

In a sickening manoeuvre, the driver then reversed over the casualties before he was shot dead.

Fit and able Israeli men over the age of 18 must serve in the army for three years while women usually serve for half that amount of time. Israeli Arab citizens are exempt form conscription.