Pentagon Confirms Three US Strikes in Yemen Killed Over 150 Civilians in 2025

Three American airstrikes in Yemen during 2025 resulted in the deaths of 153 civilians and injured 243 others, according to an annual Pentagon report submitted to Congress.

The formal acknowledgment marks a sharp escalation in U.S. military-inflicted civilian harm following years of historically low reported figures.

Operation Rough Rider, launched to counter Houthi attacks on Red Sea commercial shipping, accounted for every civilian casualty formally confirmed by the Defense Department for the entire year.

Concentration of Casualties in Yemen

The Defense Department’s mandatory submission disclosed that the total confirmed death toll stemmed from three specific bombardments executed between April and May 2025.

Military assessments indicated five non-combatants were killed near Sanaa on April 6, followed by 80 fatalities near Ras Isa Port on April 17, and 68 near Saada on April 28.

Department officials compiled these casualty findings using satellite imagery, public reporting, and intelligence assessments without conducting on-the-ground site visits or field interviews.

Omissions and Independent Estimates

Independent monitoring organization Airwars estimated that at least 258 non-combatants died during the campaign, while U.S. military officials continue evaluating 15 additional incidents in Yemen.

The official tally excludes casualties resulting from maritime strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, which accounted for approximately 120 deaths in 2025.

Despite the surging numbers, opening remarks in the congressional submission maintained that "The U.S. military is steadfastly committed to limiting harm to civilians, and DoW has a strong record of compliance with the law of war."

Institutional Retrenchment

The spike in non-combatant deaths coincides with sweeping personnel and budgetary reductions across the Defense Department's civilian harm mitigation infrastructure.

Staffing at the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence dropped from 40 personnel to just nine by the close of fiscal year 2025, alongside broader 90 percent staffing cuts across the program since March 2025.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has championed operational changes to prioritize "maximum lethality, not tepid legality" while seeking the complete disestablishment of the civilian harm oversight program.