The United States Pentagon has acknowledged that American military operations killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others in 2025, a dramatic increase from only two civilian deaths recorded in 2024, in a report submitted to Congress that critics have already described as an undercount.
All 153 deaths and the 243 injuries recorded in the report were linked to three American airstrikes conducted in Yemen in April 2025 during Operation Rough Rider, the US military campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The Pentagon’s Central Command assessed that the three strikes “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm.
As of February 2026, CENTCOM was still reviewing 15 other incidents in Yemen following reports submitted by non-governmental organisations.
One official who spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity described the report as “a fucking joke,” adding that a second official called the 153 figure “lowball numbers.”
The organisation Airwars, which independently tracks civilian harm in armed conflicts, reported that at least 238 civilians may have been killed in Operation Rough Rider alone.
The report notably does not include any casualties from American airstrikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean, which the Trump administration has carried out against what it describes as narco-terrorists.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International consider such strikes unlawful extrajudicial killings.
The US military’s strikes on such vessels have killed more than 200 people since September 2025, according to tallies compiled after each strike.
The disclosure comes at the same time as the Trump administration has moved to significantly weaken the military programme created in 2022 specifically to prevent and account for civilian harm.
The administration’s 2026 budget proposed what Pentagon documents described as the “disestablishment” of the Civilian Protection Centre of Excellence, reducing personnel funding by over $2m and mission support funding by more than $9.5m.
Officials told CBS News the cuts amounted to roughly a 90 per cent reduction in personnel since March 2025, with civilian harm experts leaving their posts, the Army stopping funding for the data management platform and the centre losing large numbers of staff and leaders.
The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on the report or on the cuts to its civilian harm programme.
(The Whistler)