Pentagon Confirms 153 Civilians Killed in 2025 Yemen Strikes
A report to Congress ties all confirmed civilian deaths from U.S. military operations last year to three airstrikes in the campaign against Yemen's Houthis, excluding boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific.
The Pentagon has formally acknowledged that U.S. military operations killed more than 150 civilians and injured over 240 people in 2025, with three airstrikes in Yemen accounting for every casualty the department confirmed.
The tally, submitted to Congress late Monday and obtained by CBS News, does not include any deaths from airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. It comes amid a broader military campaign against Iran and follows cuts to Pentagon offices dedicated to mitigating civilian casualties under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has said he wants to focus on "lethality" rather than "tepid legality."
The report shows strikes during Operation Rough Rider, the U.S. campaign against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia from March to May 2025, killed 153 civilians and injured 243 more. Investigators found it was "more likely than not" that five civilians died in an April 6 strike near Sanaa, 80 died near Ras Isa Port on April 17, and 68 died near Saada on April 28. The military did not conduct site visits or interviews, relying instead on intelligence, imagery and public reporting.
Airwars, a group that tracks civilian harm, had estimated at least 258 civilians may have died in the operation. The Pentagon report acknowledges it is still assessing 15 other incidents in Yemen flagged by nongovernmental organizations.
The report excludes roughly 120 casualties from boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific last year and 95 this year. The Trump administration says those strikes, which began in September 2025, target drug traffickers from groups it considers terrorist organizations, though legal experts have called them potentially illegal extrajudicial killings.
Congress has required annual civilian casualty reports since 2018. Deaths fell to one in 2023 and two in 2024 after the Afghanistan withdrawal but rose sharply with the Houthi campaign.
Separately, a Pentagon report released in July showed the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence's staff has shrunk to nine employees from 40, as the department seeks to eliminate the center and cut its broader civilian harm mitigation program. Hegseth has said the military "never targets civilians."
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), in accordance with our editorial policy.
