Pentagon report says U.S. strikes on Houthis killed 153 civilians in Yemen in 2025

A Pentagon annual report has said that U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen killed 153 civilians during an April 2025 campaign. The disclosure, obtained by the Associated Press, focuses on three airstrikes carried out that month as the United States responded to Houthi attacks on shipping and Israel. The deadliest strike was at Ras Isa port, where the report says 80 civilians were killed and 171 others were injured.

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The report was presented to the U.S. Congress as part of an annual assessment of civilian casualties from American military operations. It says the April strikes were part of a wider campaign against the Houthis after the group began threatening and firing on Israeli targets and merchant vessels in the Red Sea.

That waterway is a major global trade route linking the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, which has made the conflict significant well beyond Yemen. The Ras Isa strike drew particular attention because of the scale of the casualties and the images later shown by Houthi media of bodies at the site. The report also comes amid continuing concern in Washington about civilian harm from U.S. military operations.

According to the report, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has sharply reduced the size of an office focused on limiting civilian damage, adding to scrutiny of how such strikes are assessed and reviewed. The findings matter because they add an official U.S. accounting to a conflict that has repeatedly disrupted one of the world's most important shipping corridors. The Houthis have used attacks in the Red Sea and around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to pressure regional rivals and draw attention to the war linked to Gaza.

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Any confirmed civilian toll from U.S. strikes is likely to intensify debate over the balance between military pressure and civilian protection. The report also sits within a broader pattern of escalation in the Red Sea. The supporting material says the Houthis announced a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in July, and attacks on vessels followed soon after.

It also notes that a cargo ship was attacked in the Red Sea this week, with four crew members reported dead, underlining how the maritime threat remains active. The campaign against the Houthis has therefore become part of a wider regional security problem involving shipping, airstrikes and retaliatory attacks. What remains unclear from the report is whether the Pentagon will release further detail on the three April strikes or any internal review of the civilian deaths.

It is also not clear what changes, if any, will follow in U.S. targeting or civilian-harm mitigation procedures. For now, the report provides one of the clearest official tallies yet of the human cost of the 2025 campaign in Yemen.

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