{"id":8930,"date":"2026-08-12T05:34:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T05:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8930"},"modified":"2026-08-12T05:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T05:34:46","slug":"pentagon-report-reveals-steep-civilian-toll-of-trumps-yemen-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8930","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon report reveals steep civilian toll of Trump\u2019s Yemen campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

The military operation was the first following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s dismantling of an office focused on mitigating unintended casualties.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Trump administration to end Medicaid funding for children\u2019s transgender care<\/a><\/p>\n

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth participates in a Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland late last month. (Daniel Heuer\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

U.S. forces last year killed 153 civilians and wounded nearly 250 others in three attacks targeting suspected militants in Yemen, a Pentagon review found, marking the Trump administration\u2019s first public acknowledgment since taking office that the military caused significant harm to noncombatants in any conflict.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon said in its review, a copy of which was seen by The Washington Post, that the three U.S. attacks in April 2025 \u201cmore likely than not\u201d harmed civilians and that 15 other incidents in Yemen remain under evaluation. The assessment is contained in an annual report required by Congress.<\/p>\n

The review focuses on incidents that occurred in 2025. It does not address claims of civilian harm arising from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon declined to comment on the review\u2019s findings, saying that it would release the report publicly \u201cin the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump authorized the Yemen campaign soon after his return to the White House, as pro-Iran Houthi fighters, protesting Israel\u2019s war in the Gaza Strip, staged repeated attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Lasting roughly 50 days, it was the first major U.S. military operation following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s dismantling of a Pentagon office focused on mitigating civilian harm<\/a>. U.S. forces attacked at least 1,000 targets in that time, according to Pentagon figures, in a bid to diminish the Houthis\u2019 arsenal and restore freedom of navigation to the waters off Yemen.<\/p>\n

Two of the attacks spotlighted in the Pentagon\u2019s review rank among the highest single death tolls from U.S. strikes since 2001, rights advocates said.<\/p>\n

One attack, on April 28, 2025, <\/b>killed 68 civilians in northwestern Yemen, according to the Pentagon\u2019s review. An investigation by The Washington Post last year verified<\/a> at least 38 dead after U.S. forces struck a purported detention center where African migrants were being held.<\/p>\n

On April 17, 2025, a U.S. attack on the Ras Isa Port in western Yemen killed 80 people and injured 171 others, according to the Pentagon\u2019s review.<\/p>\n

An attack April 6, 2025, killed five people in Sanaa, Yemen\u2019s capital, the review says. A separate letter that the Pentagon provided to Congress said the casualties stemming from that incident occurred at a residence.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups have described the attacks as potential war crimes<\/a>. It is unclear if any U.S. personnel have faced disciplinary action as a result.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversaw the Yemen campaign, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>

Read more President Trump appears, and briefly stars, at his Patriot Games<\/a><\/p>\n

Some details of the Pentagon\u2019s review were first reported<\/a> by NBC News.<\/p>\n

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Smoke rises after U.S. strikes on Sanaa, Yemen, on Dec. 31, 2024. (Adel al-Khadher\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Trump\u2019s predecessor, President Joe Biden, also directed military action in Yemen during the last two years of his administration, following the initial escalation of Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in response to the Gaza war. Under Biden, the Pentagon expanded efforts to reduce civilian casualties<\/a> caused by U.S. and partner forces after several high-profile incidents, including a botched airstrike in Afghanistan<\/a> during his administration that killed seven children.<\/p>\n

Airwars, a nongovernmental organization that tracks claims of civilian harm, has said that at least 224 civilians were killed as a result of U.S. operations in Yemen between March and May 2025. A total of 258 civilians were killed in all previous U.S. campaigns there, dating to 2002, according to the group\u2019s records.<\/p>\n

Emily Tripp, Airwars\u2019 executive director, questioned the Trump administration\u2019s commitment to accounting for claims of civilian harm, saying the 15 unresolved investigations stemming from last year\u2019s operations in Yemen suggest that it is unlikely the U.S. military will thoroughly scrutinize its actions this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are they going to keep up with the scale and pace of war we have seen in Iran? They chose to hit 13,000 targets in Iran in 40 days \u2014 that\u2019s 10 times more than in the Yemen campaign,\u201d Tripp said.<\/p>\n

The number of civilian-harm investigators is a sliver of what it was at the beginning of 2025, with cuts overseen by Hegseth<\/a> shedding more than 90 percent of the office\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s report to Congress assessed that there were no incidents in which civilian casualties resulted from U.S. military operations in the Western Hemisphere, where the Trump administration\u2019s campaign against suspected drug traffickers has left at least 221 people dead.<\/p>\n

Sarah Harrison, a nonresident fellow at Stimson Center and former Pentagon attorney, called the assertion \u201can extension of the distortion of reality coming from the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump has fabricated a war with cartels so he can use the military to target them,\u201d she said, but \u201cthe standard for war here is not met.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison and other human rights experts have said the attacks amount to extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals, rather than lawful attacks on combatants. The Pentagon has rejected that claim.<\/p>\n

One 2018 attack in Iraq<\/a>, which mistakenly killed Iraqi police officers, also killed eight civilians and injured 14 others, according to the review. To reach that determination, Defense Department officials made a rare site visit and conducted witness interviews, the report says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe families in these cases \u2026 will finally get some closure,\u201d said Joanna Naples-Mitchell, an attorney <\/b>and senior adviser at Center for Civilians in Conflict who pursued accountability on behalf of the victims and their survivors. \u201cWhile thousands of civilian deaths and injuries remain unacknowledged,\u201d she added, \u201ceach case matters.\u201d<\/p>

Read more The data center backlash is building<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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