Thousands of American pilots and air crew who have been flying harrowing missions over Syria are now eligible for danger pay.

Nearly three months after U.S. forces began flying nightly bombing and surveillance sorties over Syria, the Pentagon on Monday officially approved Imminent Danger Pay, known as IDP, for those service members.

The change will affect about 600 service members per week, said Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman.

The addition of Syrian air space to the official list of IDP locations applies retroactively to Sept. 21, when the U.S. airstrikes in Syria began. Thousands of service members likely will soon get a lump sum of several hundred dollars, Christensen said.

Imminent Danger Pay is $225 per month, prorated at $7.50 a day.

Syrian air space is potentially among the most dangerous in the world because the Syrian regime has sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry. But to date, that arsenal has not fired on any U.S. aircraft.

The Syrian regime has signaled that it will allow U.S. military aircraft to violate its airspace as long as the American forces target only the regime's enemies, including the extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State, which control large parts of the war-torn country.

In June, DoD vastly curtailed its list of IDP-eligible locations and removed 22 specific areas around the globe, abruptly ending the bonus pay for about 44,000 troops deployed overseas.

About Andrew Tilghman

Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.

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