From Syria to Somalia, U.S. Troops Remain Deployed in Wars That Never Officially Ended

No declarations. No end dates. Just American troops fighting wars that faded from public view.

While Washington debates future showdowns with China, Iran, and Russia, thousands of U.S. troops remain deployed this holiday season in conflicts many Americans believe ended years ago. From Syria to Somalia, from Iraq to the waters off Yemen, U.S. forces continue to raid, strike, and defend themselves under war authorities passed more than two decades ago.

These are not the headline wars of the post-9/11 era. There are no troop surges or prime-time speeches. The missions are smaller, quieter, and largely invisible. But they are active—and lethal. The wars did not end. They simply slipped out of sight.

As of mid-2025, roughly 40,000 U.S. troops remain stationed across the Middle East. The footprint has shrunk, but it has never disappeared.

In Syria, about 900 American troops are still deployed in the east, officially on a stabilization mission following the defeat of ISIS’ territorial caliphate. In practice, they operate in a live combat environment, facing rocket, drone, and indirect fire attacks from Iranian-backed militias while conducting raids alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces against ISIS cells.

The mission briefly resurfaced in December after two National Guardsmen and an American contractor were killed by a suspected ISIS attacker. There is no declared war, no defined end state—and yet U.S. troops have been there for more than a decade.

In Iraq, the war is winding down but not over. Washington has begun a phased drawdown under an agreement with Baghdad, consolidating forces and transferring responsibility to Iraqi security services. Still, U.S. troops retain authority to strike ISIS targets and defend themselves from militia attacks. The Iraq war no longer resembles the conflict of the 2000s, but it remains unfinished.

Perhaps the quietest war is in Somalia. Roughly 500 U.S. troops are deployed alongside Somali forces fighting al-Shabab. American airstrikes continue regularly, often announced days later or not at all. The mission stretches back decades, from the 1990s humanitarian intervention to today’s counterterrorism campaign—revived after a brief withdrawal and redeployment in 2022. Few Americans notice, but the fighting never stopped.

In Yemen, there is no permanent U.S. base presence, yet American sailors and pilots are in direct combat. U.S. naval and air forces have intercepted missiles and drones fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels at shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. In spring 2025, U.S. forces struck more than 1,000 Houthi targets in a sustained air and naval campaign to protect global trade routes.

Beyond the Middle East, U.S. forces are also engaged under lesser-known authorities. Under Operation Southern Spear, American naval assets have carried out counter-narcotics strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing more than 100 people on alleged trafficking vessels. Fifteen percent of all U.S. naval power is now concentrated in the Southern Command theater—an extraordinary buildup that blurs the line between policing and war.

None of these conflicts were formally concluded by Congress. Most persist under the same post-9/11 authorizations passed more than 20 years ago. Administrations have changed. Public attention has moved on. The missions remain.

Even as the White House signals a shift away from Middle East dominance in U.S. foreign policy, the reality on the ground tells a different story: as long as ISIS, al-Shabab, Iran-backed militias, and regional instability endure, American troops are unlikely to leave.

These are wars without endings—conflicts fought in silence, sustained by inertia, and carried by service members long after the nation stopped paying attention.