The Pentagon has acknowledged that US troops are "in combat" in Iraq after previously characterizing the mission as one of training and assisting Iraqi security forces against Islamic State.
Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman in Baghdad, told reporters: "We're in combat. I mean, of course, this is a combat zone. There's a war going on in Iraq, if folks haven't noticed. And we're here and it's all around us.
"I thought I made that pretty clear. That is why we all carry guns. That's why we all get combat patches when we leave here, that's why we all receive an immediate danger badge. So, of course we're in combat."
In June last year President Barack Obama said, "We will not be sending US troops back into combat in Iraq."
There are now around 3,500 US troops in Iraq, and the US government has sought to avoid describing their role as a combat one.
Earlier this week Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said the troops were there only to "train, advise, and assist."
Last week saw the first death of an American serviceman in action in Iraq since 2011.
Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler died in a firefight as US special operations soldiers and Kurdish forces freed 70 hostages from an ISIS prison near Hawija.
Ash Carter, the US secretary of defense, speaking on Wednesday, said: "Of course he died in combat. That's what happened."
But he added: "It doesn't represent assuming a combat role. It represents a continuation of our advise and assist mission."
Meanwhile, retired Gen. John Allen, President Barack Obama's special envoy in the campaign against ISIS, said European nations might consider combat operations to battle extremists there.
He said: "I expect that as time goes on, and as more opportunity becomes available to us, we may well see our European partners become more kinetically involved in Syria."
This article was written by Nick Allen Washington from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
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