President Barack Obama said there would not be combat troops deployed to Iraq, but he left the door open for sending 300 military “advisors” to the country. In a Thursday afternoon White House press briefing, Obama said the United States has “humanitarian…strategic…and counterterrorism interests” in stopping the violent conflagrations across the Middle Eastern nation, led by terrorist organization ISIS.

“American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again,” Obama said, adding that doing so would not be “effective” to reaching those interests.