US advisers to Iraq will earn combat pay

Special operators being sent to Iraq will receive combat pay, even though they will not be going as part of a combat mission, the Pentagon’s press secretary said Saturday evening.

The clarification came after confusion over whether the advisers President Obama is sending to Iraq as part of a non-combat mission would receive pay usually reserved for those who serve in a combat zone.

{mosads}Combat pay, technically known as Imminent Danger Pay, allows U.S. troops to earn an extra $7.50 per day, or $225 maximum per month for undertaking higher risk.

“Our advisors in Iraq will qualify for IDP,” Rear Adm. John Kirby tweeted late Saturday.

The seeming contradiction highlights the awkwardness of the administration’s decision to send troops back to the country to help Iraqi security forces fight off Islamic extremists after the U.S. combat mission was declared over in 2011.

“Our combat mission in Iraq ended in 2011,” said Kirby on Friday.

After the Sunni extremist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria succeeded in taking over several major Iraqi cities this month, Obama announced last Thursday he would send as many as 300 military advisers to Iraq to help its forces defend Baghdad.

The advisers, which will include Green Berets, will train and advise Iraqi security forces at joint operation centers in Baghdad and Northern Iraq, which presumably will not bring them close to combat.

Administration officials sought to emphasize that although the advisers would have the inherent right of self defense, they were not there to engage in combat.

“This is not a combat mission. These personnel are going to be doing assessments and eventually helping us with advisory missions and helping gather intelligence,” Kirby said Friday.

Yet, there is no mistaking that the troops could be in harm’s way.

Imminent Danger Pay is paid to troops who face “the imminent threat of physical harm” due to “civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism, or wartime conditions,” according to a Pentagon press release earlier this year.

In January, the Pentagon announced it had reviewed areas where troops would qualify for IDP and decided to disqualify the “land areas” of East Timor, Haiti, Liberia, Oman, Rwanda, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

In addition, the Pentagon disqualified the land areas of and airspace above Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, and Montenegro, as well as the four water areas of the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, and the Red Sea.

The water area and air space above the Persian Gulf was also disqualified.

It was decided during that review that IDP would remain in effect for troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen and Egypt.

“Nothing changed,” Kirby tweeted Saturday.