Pentagon report: Yemen strikes killed 153 civilians in 2025
Pentagon report to Congress: three US airstrikes in Yemen in April 2025 killed 153 civilians and wounded 243, per Reuters. The strikes hit a Sanaa residence, the Ras Isa port and an area near Saada under Operation Rough Rider. The Pentagon's 2024 tally was two civilians killed.
The Pentagon has told Congress that three US airstrikes in Yemen during April 2025 killed 153 civilians and wounded another 243, according to Reuters, CBS News and the Washington Post. All three strikes occurred during Operation Rough Rider, a 53-day US military campaign targeting Houthi leaders, weapons systems and military infrastructure across Yemen. On April 6, a strike on a residence in Sanaa killed 5 civilians and injured 25. On April 17, a strike on the Ras Isa port killed 80 civilians and injured 171. On April 28, a strike near Saada killed 47 civilians and injured 68. US Central Command assessed that all three strikes more likely than not resulted in civilian harm. The Pentagon's own assessment for the entirety of 2024 was two civilians killed by US military operations, a sharp jump from the toll disclosed for the April 2025 Yemen strikes alone. The report submitted to Congress does not include any casualties from separate US strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific; US Southern Command has assessed no civilian casualties resulted from those operations as of February 1, 2026. The scale of the toll disclosed this week puts new scrutiny on how targets were vetted during a campaign the administration has largely described as a success against Houthi military capability.