It's also been revealed that Australia is involved in the military preparations to retake the city of Ramadi, just west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The United States is deploying up to 450 more military personnel for the coming Ramadi mission and Prime Minister Tony Abbott has revealed Australia is discussing its military options in the fight against IS militants.
"We are talking with our friends and partners about how the air strikes might be more effective and how the Iraqi forces might be better helped," Mr Abbott told a regional Countering Violent Extremism summit in Sydney.
Australia's Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral David Johnston, is not expecting Iraq's Government will request Australian combat forces, rather a reinforcement of the current campaign.
"My expectation broadly... would be along the same training lines that we are doing," Vice Admiral Johnston told reporters in Canberra.
"All of the Coalition effort is all around training at the moment, whether it is advise assist missions .. or the building partner capacity mission. They are the two core roles that are being provided on the ground."
"And I would not see anything outside of those two areas."
Vice Admiral Johnston says Iraqi forces have fought, in some circumstances, exceptionally well under enormous pressure, but the fall of Ramadi last month has exposed weaknesses.
"The performance of the Iraqi security forces has been variable. That is an accurate statement," said Vice Admiral Johnston.
The capital of Anbar province fell on May 17, embarrassing the Iraq's forces and government. The US Defence Secretary Ash Carter frankly assessed the retreat as "the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight."
The IS militants had waged an 18 month campaign to take Ramadi. In the final stages, the militants detonated 30-40 large vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that could level entire city blocks.
The Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral Johnston, says the militants have also been using water as a weapon, cutting off supply links from Ramadi's dam.
"There is no denying the fact that Daesh achieving control of Ramadi is a setback, but the campaign is much more than a single battle"
Australia is involved in an advisory capacity in the mission to take back Ramadi from IS, partnering with counter terrorism service forces in Al Anbar province.
"Preparatory actions are underway. Ramadi is a very large area. The actions to recover it will not occur within a day or a week. It will be in months," Vice Admiral Johnston warned.
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