The Pentagon told Congress that US air strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen during 2025 killed 153 civilians and injured 243, according to a 12-page report sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee. The assessment identified three operations that more likely than not caused civilian harm.
President Donald Trump authorised the campaign, called Operation Rough Rider, in March 2025 after Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The operation ended in early May.
The first incident identified by the Pentagon occurred on April 6 at a home in Sanaa, where five civilians were killed and 25 injured. On April 17, a strike at Ras Isa port killed 80 civilians and injured 171. Human Rights Watch later called for that attack to be investigated as a possible war crime.
The third operation took place near Saada on April 28 and killed 47 civilians while injuring 68, the department found. Amnesty International said an attack on a migrant detention centre killed and wounded dozens of African migrants, many held by the Houthis only because of their irregular immigration status, and also urged a war-crimes investigation.
Fifteen other reports connected to the Houthi campaign remained under departmental review. The independent Yemen Data Project counted 339 US strikes during Operation Rough Rider and reported at least 238 civilian deaths, including 24 children, as well as 467 injuries. Its totals exceeded the Pentagon's completed findings while additional official reviews were pending.
The Defense Department said US forces remained committed to reducing civilian harm and following the law of war. It maintained that American operations routinely apply policy protections beyond minimum legal requirements. A Pentagon official said the department would provide its annual report on casualties from 2025 operations in the coming months. That reporting duty is set by the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act in Section 1057.
The disclosure arrived after significant staffing reductions at the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence. A July report to Congress said the centre fell from 40 civilian, military and contractor positions to nine full-time staff at the end of fiscal 2025: seven civilians and two service members. Civilian-harm mitigation budgets and positions elsewhere in the department were also reduced, reorganised or ended. The centre said it continued supporting commands through reviews, exercises and workshops.
The Pentagon separately reported no 2025 incidents in Syria and Iraq that met its more-likely-than-not standard for civilian casualties. In Africa Command reviews completed during 2025, one 2018 strike in El Burr, Somalia, was found to have caused one civilian death. The Yemen findings, however, documented a substantial toll and left further cases unresolved.
