U.S. military operations in 2025 resulted in 153 civilian deaths and 243 injuries, according to a Pentagon review sent to Congress. Every confirmed casualty from that year’s strikes stemmed from three separate attacks in Yemen during a campaign targeting Houthi militants in the Red Sea.
The Three Yemen Airstrikes That Drove the 2025 Toll
The Pentagon’s 12-page report, submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee, documents a steep rise in civilian casualties following years of much lower figures. The Trump administration launched the military campaign against Yemen’s Houthi militia in March 2025, an operation dubbed Operation Rough Rider, in response to militant attacks on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
According to the review, U.S. Central Command assessed that three specific airstrikes in April 2025 more likely than not resulted in civilian harm. The first incident occurred on April 6 near the rebel-held capital city of Sanaa, where five civilians were killed and 25 others wounded at a residence. A second, far more destructive strike hit the Ras Isa port on April 17, leaving 80 civilians dead and 171 injured as tanker trucks burned and fireballs billowed skyward.
Contrasting Casualty Figures and Independent Scrutiny
The Pentagon’s official count sits below independent estimates compiled by monitoring groups during the campaign. The Yemen Data Project reported that the military carried out 339 strikes during Operation Rough Rider and that at least 238 civilians were killed, including 24 children, alongside 467 injured. Airwars, another organization tracking civilian harm, estimated that at least 258 civilians may have perished during the operation.
Human rights organizations condemned several of the targeted sites at the time. Human Rights Watch argued that the Ras Isa port attack should be investigated as a war crime, noting the facility served as a critical entry point for aid and that hundreds of workers were present. Similarly, Amnesty International investigated the April 28 strike near Saada and stated it killed and injured dozens of African migrants being held at a detention center.
“This was a lethal failure by the US to comply with one of its core obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International
The Pentagon noted in its assessment that it did not conduct site visits or interviews to evaluate the strikes, relying instead on intelligence sources, imagery, and open-source reporting. Department officials added that 15 additional incidents in Yemen remain under review by Central Command in response to reports from nongovernmental organizations.
Broader Context of U.S. Civilian Harm Reporting
The annual disclosures are mandated by Section 1057 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. The resulting data illustrates a sharp fluctuation in reported casualties across successive administrations. Nearly 500 civilians were reported killed in 2017 during the first year of required reporting, a figure that dropped significantly following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan—falling to just one civilian killed in 2023 and two in 2024, before climbing again with the 2025 campaign against the Houthis.
At the same time, the institutional infrastructure dedicated to tracking and reducing such harm has faced significant reductions.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the department’s approach, stating an intent to prioritize operational lethality.
“We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.”
Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary
Pending Reviews and What Comes Next
The newly released figures do not encompass all recent military operations. The Pentagon report explicitly excluded casualties stemming from U.S. strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific, where the administration has targeted suspected drug traffickers. Those separate maritime operations have killed about 120 people last year and 95 this year, drawing sharp condemnation from legal groups that characterize the strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings.
For Yemen, congressional oversight committees will examine the remaining 15 open incident assessments currently being processed by Central Command. Meanwhile, a Pentagon official told congressional reporters that the department will submit its comprehensive annual casualty report for the full 2025 calendar year in the coming months.
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