US Military Operations Killed 153 Civilians In 2025 — Pentagon

The United States military killed 153 civilians and injured 243 others in military operations in 2025, according to a Pentagon assessment submitted to the US Congress.

The figures, cited by a US official on Tuesday, represent a significant increase from 2024, when the Pentagon assessed that two civilians were killed and two others injured in US military operations.

According to the report published by US media, all the civilian deaths and injuries recorded in 2025 resulted from three US strikes in Yemen in April.

The US Central Command assessed that the three strikes “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm.

The Pentagon said it was still assessing 15 other incidents in Yemen as of February 2026, following reports received through non-governmental organisations.

The US military has maintained that its operations in Yemen are aimed at degrading the capabilities of Iran-backed Houthi militants.

However, the Pentagon report did not include casualties from US strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

It said that as of February 1, 2026, the US Southern Command assessed that “there were no incidents in which civilian casualties more likely than not resulted from U.S. military operations in the USSOUTHCOM area of ⁠responsibility in 2025.”

The administration of President Donald Trump has also conducted strikes against vessels it accused of transporting narcotics in the Eastern Pacific, describing those targeted as “narco-terrorists.”

The strikes have killed more than 200 people since September 2025, based on death tolls released following each operation.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have described the strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings, while the American Civil Liberties Union criticised the Trump administration’s justification for the operations, describing its claims about those targeted as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”

The Pentagon’s latest figures highlight a sharp rise in civilian casualties attributed to US military operations in 2025, with Yemen accounting for all the civilian harm formally assessed in the report.