Some 900 US troops are still stationed in Syria. (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. airstrikes and special operations raids have continued even as Syria largely has vanished from the national conversation. There is no declared war and no defined end state — yet American troops remain in an active combat environment.
The U.S. military entered Syria in 2014 as part of the campaign against the Islamic State, launching airstrikes and later deploying special operations forces to work with local partners. The American footprint expanded during the fight to dismantle ISIS’s self-declared caliphate, with U.S. troops embedded alongside Kurdish-led forces in eastern Syria.
After ISIS lost its territorial hold in 2019, Washington sharply reduced its presence but did not fully withdraw, keeping several hundred troops in the country to prevent an ISIS resurgence and counter Iranian-backed militias. Despite repeated calls to end the mission, U.S. forces have remained in Syria for more than a decade, operating without a formal declaration of war and under post-9/11 authorities that were never repealed.
The U.S. military presence in Somalia dates back to the early 1990s, when American forces intervened as part of a humanitarian mission during the country’s civil war. (Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images)
The U.S. expanded its presence again after 2017, conducting regular airstrikes and deploying special operations forces to assist Somali troops fighting al-Shabab. In late 2020, the Trump administration ordered most U.S. forces to withdraw, shifting to an "over-the-horizon" posture.
The Biden administration reversed that decision in 2022, redeploying several hundred U.S. troops to Somalia, where they remain today as part of an ongoing counterterrorism mission.
Some 500 U.S. troops are stationed in Somalia, and earlier in 2025 War Secretary Pete Hegseth emphasized the importance of maintaining a footprint in Africa.
"Africa is very much the front lines from a fight you’ve got Islamists, you’ve got Christian populations that are under siege in Africa that have been ignored for far too long."
"We’re not trying to have American boots all over the globe," he said when asked in February whether the Trump administration would keep troops in Somalia. "We’ll review the force posture there, with the generals doing the heavy lifting."
SOUTHCOM said it carried out a lethal kinetic strike that killed four male narco-terrorists in the Eastern Pacific. (U.S. Southern Command via X)
None of these conflicts were formally concluded by Congress. Most continue under the same post-9/11 authorizations passed more than two decades ago.
For the Middle East, the Trump administration has signaled that may change — but as long as the threat of Iran exists, it’s unlikely the U.S. will leave the region on a broad scale.
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"The days in which the Middle East dominated American foreign policy in both long-term planning and day-to-day execution are thankfully over — not because the Middle East no longer matters, but because it is no longer the constant irritant, and potential source of imminent catastrophe, that it once was," said the White House’s national security strategy, released earlier in December.
"It is rather emerging as a place of partnership, friendship, and investment — a trend that should be welcomed and encouraged."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/from-syria-somalia-us-troops-remain-deployed-holiday-season-under-missions-never-formally-ended