US military strikes killed 153 civilians, reveals Department of War report

The Department of War has officially acknowledged that United States military operations in 2025 left 153 civilians dead and 243 injured.

In a striking revelation, every single one of those 396 assessed casualties occurred during just three air strikes in Yemen, with zero casualties officially registered across operations in Iraq, Syria, Iran, or the Western Hemisphere.

The deadliest incident unfolded on 17 April 2025 at the Ras Isa Port, where American strikes killed 80 civilians and wounded 171 others in a single operation.

Additional strikes in Sanaa and Saada accounted for the remaining deaths and injuries reported during the year.

A questionable approach to investigative rigour

Despite talking a remarkably grand game about moral imperatives and strict protocols under Department of Defence Instruction 3000.17, military assessors comfortably evaluated these lethal strikes without ever setting foot on the ground.

Citing the "contested nature of the area of operations", officials conducted precisely zero site visits and interviewed zero surviving local witnesses in Yemen.

Instead, United States Central Command opted to rely entirely on aerial surveillance imagery and high-altitude intelligence, apparently deciding that viewing human tragedy strictly from the clouds provides all the clarity required.

Words of sympathy, zero financial compensation

When it comes to offering actual redress to grieving families, the formal sympathy abruptly ends.

The Department of War confirmed that ex gratia condolence payments were deemed "not appropriate" for any of the victims in Yemen, ensuring that hundreds of affected civilians receive not a single penny from American coffers.

Transparency remains equally elusive elsewhere, as the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation INHERENT RESOLVE continues to cloak individual national responsibility by grouping all incidents under generic coalition banners.

Meanwhile, historic updates continue to trickle out years late, including eight civilian deaths from a 2018 ground operation in Al Baghdadi, Iraq, and an additional teenage boy killed in a 2018 strike in El Burr, Somalia.