Pentagon says it killed at least 150 Yemeni civilians last year

The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time that U.S. military operations killed Yemeni civilians last year, in an annual report on civilian casualties it sent to members of Congress Tuesday.

CENTCOM determined that three operations in Yemen last year “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, the report said . It assessed that 153 civilians and wounded 243 others were killed as part of Operation Rough Rider, its campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen.

The U.S. initially did not acknowledge that these operations, which were meant to stop the Houthis from attacking vessels in the Red Sea, killed civilians last year. The strikes included attacks on a port, a residential building, and a migrant detention center in Saada, where civilians were likely to be present. At the time, the U.S. limited the details it would disclose about its strikes, citing the need "to preserve operational security."

The report also acknowledged civilian deaths from 2018, including 8 deaths and 14 injuries in Iraq and one death in Somalia. Fifteen assessments were still pending for Yemen from 2025; three were pending for Somalia.

The Pentagon’s figures are lower than independent estimates. The Yemen Data Project, for example, found at least 238 civilians were killed and 467 injured in Operation Rough Rider.

In addition, the Pentagon report assessed that no civilians were killed in repeated boat strikes around the Caribbean over the past eleven months.

“By its own count, the U.S. killed over 100 civilians in its boat strikes in 2025 alone — people simply accused of a crime, outside of armed conflict,” Annie Shiel, the U.S. advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) said. “These are extrajudicial killings, or murder, plain and simple.”

"Congress must put an end to these executions, including by refusing to fund them, and must demand accountability for civilian victims and survivors of the strikes,” Shiel said.

The Pentagon's 2025 report does not include figures of how many civilians were killed in the U.S. war on Iran, which began in late February of this year. But observers are skeptical the DoD will properly acknowledge these deaths in its next report.

“They chose to hit 13,000 targets in Iran in 40 days — that’s 10 times more than in the Yemen campaign,” Emily Tripp, the executive director of Airwars, an organization tracking civilian harms during conflicts, told the Washington Post.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a U.S.-based monitoring group, estimates at least 1,700 Iranian civilians have been killed since the conflict began. That includes a U.S. attack on a girls’ school in Minab, Iran, at the beginning of the war, which killed more than 100 children.

A Pentagon official told the Intercept this year’s report was a “f*cking joke.”