Pentagon: 2025 Yemen strikes killed 153 civilians

A U.S. defense assessment found that American military operations in Yemen caused 153 civilian deaths and 243 civilian injuries during 2025, a U.S. official said Tuesday. The official said the Pentagon’s review tied every recorded casualty in the assessment to three specific strikes carried out in April 2025.

Officials said the April operations were aimed at Houthi-controlled infrastructure, including the Ras Isa fuel port. They said the review concluded that the available information supported a determination that the three April strikes resulted in civilian harm.

April 2025 strikes tied to all recorded civilian April 2025 strikes tied to all recorded civilian harm Ras Isa Officials said the Pentagon assessment did not attribute additional civilian casualties to other operations within the scope described by the official. Instead, the overall 2025 totals in the review—153 deaths and 243 injuries—were linked exclusively to the three April 2025 incidents. The assessment said it based its findings on intelligence, imagery, and open-source reporting. Officials described the review as a formal accounting of civilian harm for the incidents it examined, rather than a broader tally across all possible events in Yemen during the year. Ras Isa fuel port strike cited as the deadliest incident Within the set of strikes covered by the assessment, the Pentagon identified the Ras Isa fuel port operation as the deadliest single event. Officials said the strike was intended to disrupt Houthi revenue streams. For the Ras Isa fuel port strike alone, the Pentagon assessed 80 fatalities and 171 injuries. Officials said those figures represent a substantial share of the total civilian harm recorded in the 2025 assessment.

Reporting to Congress and comparison with 2024

Officials said the report is scheduled to be formally submitted to Congress. They also said the 2025 findings represent a sharp rise compared with the prior year’s Pentagon-reported figures. Ras Isa For 2024, the Department of Defense reported two civilian deaths, officials said. They said the Pentagon’s 2025 review therefore reflects a significant increase in civilian harm as captured by the department’s own assessment process.

Intent determination, condolence payments, and pending reviews According to the assessment, the Pentagon determined the strikes were not intentionally directed at non-combatants. At the same time, the review concluded that condolence payments to victims’ families are not considered appropriate.

Officials said the military is separately reviewing 15 additional incidents involving potential civilian casualties. The official said the 2025 assessment does not include outcomes from those other reviews, meaning additional findings could emerge as those cases are examined.

The official said the disclosure comes amid broader scrutiny of U.S. military engagement strategies. They added that the findings coincide with recent organizational changes involving the Pentagon office responsible for mitigating civilian harm, while noting the assessment itself is limited to the incidents it examined.