US strikes on Houthis killed 153 civilians in Yemen last year, Pentagon review finds
A Pentagon report sent to Congress found that three US airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen in April 2025 killed 153 civilians and injured 243 others. Officials determined condolence payments were not warranted for the strikes.
A Pentagon review of US military operations against Yemen's Houthi rebels, submitted to Congress on Wednesday as part of an annual civilian casualty report, found that strikes carried out last year killed 153 civilians and wounded 243.
Three strikes examined
The review covers three airstrikes conducted in April 2025 near Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital, and at the Ras Isa port. The strikes were part of a broader US campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthis, who at the time were attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea — a key route to the Suez Canal — as well as targeting Israel.
The deadliest single strike hit the port, killing 80 people and injuring 171 more. The attack triggered large fireballs and set fuel tanker trucks ablaze. Houthi media aired graphic footage from the site showing bodies scattered across the port grounds.
At the time, US Central Command said the strike was not meant to harm Yemeni civilians but rather to cut off a fuel source and revenue stream the Houthis had used to fund years of regional aggression. The new review concludes that all three strikes "more likely than not" caused civilian harm, based on US intelligence, imagery and open-source information.
No compensation planned
The Pentagon determined that condolence payments to victims' families were not appropriate in these cases, though the review does not explain the reasoning. Such payments are not legally required and do not constitute an admission of fault, but the US military has made them before — including after a 2021 drone strike in Afghanistan that killed 10 people, seven of them children.
The findings come amid growing concern in Congress over civilian casualties in military operations under the Trump administration, following a strike that hit an Iranian school earlier this year and killed as many as 168 people. According to an AP report, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has significantly reduced the size of a Pentagon office dedicated to minimizing civilian harm.
The US first began strikes against the Houthis in 2023 under the Biden administration, after the group began targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The Houthis have since expanded their attacks to target Yemeni government forces and Saudi oil infrastructure, raising fears of a renewed civil war in Yemen.
