US strikes in Yemen killed 153 civilians in 2025, says Pentagon review

The unclassified Pentagon review sheds new light on civilian harm from the US campaign against Yemen’s Houthis.

United States military strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthis killed 153 civilians last year and wounded another 243, according to a Pentagon assessment of the attacks.

The numbers were disclosed by a US official on Tuesday, citing the review, which found that all of the civilian deaths and injuries recorded by the US military in 2025 came from three strikes in Yemen in April.

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The unclassified assessment was sent to the US Congress as part of the Pentagon’s annual report on civilian casualties. It was obtained by the Associated Press after NBC News reported it earlier.

A Pentagon official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the report publicly, said the department would formally submit it in the coming months.

The numbers mark a sharp increase from 2024, when the Pentagon assessed that US military operations killed two civilians and injured two others.

The three strikes targeted Houthi forces in and around the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, as well as the Ras Isa fuel port.

The attack on Ras Isa was the deadliest, killing 80 people and injuring 171. The strike sent huge fireballs into the sky and left tanker trucks burning at the port. The Houthis later aired footage of the aftermath on their Al-Masirah television channel, showing bodies scattered across the site.

US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said at the time that the attack was aimed at cutting off a source of fuel and revenue for the Houthis.

“The strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen,” CENTCOM said following the April 2025 attack.

“US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorise the entire region for over 10 years,” it said.

But the Pentagon review ultimately determined that the three strikes “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, based on US intelligence, imagery and open-source reporting.

The report also found that condolence payments to the victims or their families were not appropriate, though it did not explain why.

Such payments are not required under US law and do not amount to an admission of wrongdoing, but they have been offered after previous US attacks that killed civilians. After a US drone strike in Afghanistan mistakenly killed 10 people, including seven children, in 2021, for example, the Pentagon said it was committed to offering condolence payments to their relatives.

And the final toll from the US campaign in Yemen could still grow. As of February, CENTCOM was reviewing another 15 incidents following reports of civilian casualties submitted by nongovernmental organisations.

The findings come as civilian deaths from US military operations are facing renewed scrutiny under President Donald Trump.

Earlier this year, a US missile struck a primary school in Iran during the opening days of the US-Israel war on Iran, killing as many as 168 people. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also reduced the size of a Pentagon office tasked with limiting civilian harm, according to the Associated Press.

The US military first began striking Houthi targets in Yemen under former President Joe Biden in 2023, after the group began launching drones and missiles at commercial ships in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said the attacks were aimed at pressuring Israel over its war in Gaza and supporting Palestinians.

The US campaign intensified after Trump returned to office in 2025 for a second term as US president, with Washington saying its attacks were aimed at degrading the Houthis’ military capabilities and protecting shipping through the Red Sea.

The Pentagon’s assessment does not include casualties from the Trump administration’s strikes on boats it accuses of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

Those attacks have killed more than 200 people since September 2025, according to a tally of deaths announced after each strike. The Trump administration has described those targeted as “narco-terrorists”, while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described the strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings. The American Civil Liberties Union has also called the administration’s claims about those targeted “unsubstantiated”.