A year ago the Pentagon brought in a policy that freed up 14 thousand new jobs to women in the military. Since then, female personnel have run security operations and carried out house-to-house searches, but are still banned from front-line combat.

But that is about to change.

Officials say the US military is about to end its ban on women serving in front-line combat roles, opening up thousands of fighting jobs to females for the first time.

The decision has been made by outgoing US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.

Individual services will have until 2016 to seek exemptions.