President Obama has approved an extra 350 troops to protect the US Embassy in Baghdad to safeguard American diplomats.
The additional personnel now take the US military presence in Iraqi to more than 1,000, with 800 of them based in the capital.
White House officials said Mr had Obama approved the decision, adding that the troops, from the Army and Marines, will not serve in a combat role.
The move comes after a request last month from the state department for additional US troops to bolster security for the US embassy and other facilities in Iraq
“The president authorised the department of defence to fulfil a department of state request for approximately 350 additional US military personnel to protect our diplomatic facilities and personnel in Baghdad, Iraq,” the White House said in a statement.
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The United States will “continue to support the government of Iraq’s efforts to counter Isil [Islamic State], which poses a threat not only to Iraq, but to the broader Middle East and US personnel and interests in the region,” it said. US aircraft have been bombing IS extremists in Iraq since August 8, particularly around the Mosul dam in the north.
White House and Pentagon officials issued the announcement hours after IS jihadists released another video showing a masked militant beheading Steven Sotloff, an American journalist.
The Sunni extremist group has declared an Islamic “caliphate” in regions under its control in Iraq and Syria, after it swept through much of the Sunni Arab heartland north of Baghdad and then stormed minority Christian and Yazidi areas.
Mr Obama, on his way to Estonia and before heading to the Nato summit, said Washington “will be consulting this week with Nato allies regarding additional actions to take against Isil and to develop a broad-based international coalition to implement a comprehensive strategy to protect our people and to support our partners in the fight against Isil.”
The latest troop deployment brings the number of forces devoted to security for US diplomats in Iraq to 820, the Pentagon said. An additional 300 troops are serving as “advisers” to Iraqi security forces, for a total footprint of more than 1,000 troops.
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Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said the troop deployment is designed “to provide a more robust and sustainable security presence to help the Department of State continue their critical mission”.
Any decision would appear to be backed by Australia, whose prime minister has been a staunch hawk at dealing with the Isis problem.
Tony Abbott declined to rule out sending combat troops to support US airstrikes in Iraq, amid a growing confrontation with radical Islamists who have seized large swaths of that country and neighbouring Syria.
Asked by a journalist whether “boots on the ground” were needed to push back the Islamic State he replied: “Many countries are talking to one another about what is the best way forward here but plainly [Isis] is a threat not just to the people of the Middle East, but to the wider world.
“This is a conflict which we understandably wish to avoid, but it is a conflict which sadly, is reaching out to us, as we have seen.”
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Although Australia is not a member of Nato, its troops fought alongside the coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it is expected to accept formal membership in the coalition’s Enhanced Partnership Program at a summit later this week.
Australia has also joined a multinational relief effort, dropping military equipment and aid to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants in northern Iraq.
Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary-general, said the world was “outraged” at what appeared to be the beheading of a second US journalist in a video released by Islamic State militants.
“We are all outraged at reports from Iraq about the brutal killing of civilians by Isil, including yesterday’s reported brutal beheading of another journalist.”