US strikes targeting Houthis killed 153 civilians in Yemen last year, Pentagon review says

Pentagon tells Congress US killed 153 civilians in Yemen air strikes Submitted by MEE staff on Wed, 08/12/2026 - 19:33 The Houthis have resumed attacks on vessels in the Red Sea despite enduring hundreds of US air strikes A Yemeni man who was injured in US air strikes receives treatment at Al-Jumhuri Hospital in Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa, on 8 May 2025 (Mohammed Huwais/AFP) Off The US killed and wounded hundreds of Yemeni civilians during its attacks on the country last year, according to an internal US Department of War assessment shared with Congress. The US killed 153 civilians and wounded 243, the Pentagon said in a 12-page report that was sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Monday and reported by several news sites in the US. US President Donald Trump ordered the American military to begin bombing the Houthis in March 2025.

The attacks came in response to Houthi strikes on vessels in the Red Sea, which the group said were in solidarity with besieged Palestinians in Gaza. The report detailed several specific strikes that the Pentagon said “more likely than not” caused civilian deaths and injuries. The report noted a 6 April attack on Sanaa that killed five civilians and wounded 25 others.

The report also noted a 17 April US attack on Hodeidah that killed at least 80 civilians. In a June report, Human Rights Watch said the attack should be investigated as a war crime. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); “The US government’s decision to strike Ras Issa Port, a critical entry point for aid in Yemen, while hundreds of workers were present demonstrates a callous disregard for civilians’ lives,” Niku Jafarnia, a Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.

A US air strike at the end of April also killed at least 68 African migrants in Yemen's northwestern province of Saada. The Trump administration’s decision to attack the Houthis was overshadowed initially by the SignalGate leaks. Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a Signal group chat that included 19 senior US officials planning the military campaign, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, United Nations ambassador …

A Pentagon review has found that U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians. The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and reported earlier by NBC News.

A Pentagon official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department will submit the report in the coming months but had nothing more to announce. The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, as well as Israel.