US airstrikes on Yemen killed at least 25 civilians and wounded 28 others in just the first week of the Trump administration’s renewed bombing campaign against the Houthis, according to the Yemen Data Project (YDP).
The YDP released a report on Tuesday analyzing 38 strikes on Yemen the US launched from March 15 to March 21 and found that 55% of the bombings hit non-military targets. The report said the US attacks marked the heaviest and deadliest week of bombing in Yemen since the final months of the US-backed Saudi-UAE air war on the country in early 2022.
The report found that more civilians were killed in the first week of the Trump administration’s bombing campaign than were killed in the 12 months of US- UK strikes on Yemen that were conducted under the Biden administration from January 2024 to January 2025.
The YDP report said the deadliest US strike in the first week of President Trump’s bombing campaign hit a residential area in Yemen’s northern Saada province, killing 10 civilians, including four children. Another 11 civilians were injured, including two children.
The YDP said 21 out of the 38 recorded US strikes hit non-military, civilian targets. “Civilian targets hit included: a medical storage facility, a medical center, a school, a wedding hall, residential areas, a cotton gin facility, a health office, Bedouin tents, and Al-Eiman University,” the report reads.
Only one of the strikes was confirmed to hit a Houthi military target, and in 16 of the strikes, the target couldn’t be identified. The YDP recorded US strikes every night in Yemen between the hours of 7 pm and 6 am from March 15 to 21, and the US has continued daily strikes on the country this week.
The US began bombing Yemen on March 15, a few days after the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, announced they would re-impose a blockade on Israeli shipping in response to Israel’s violation of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Since the US started the airstrikes on Yemen, the Houthis have launched attacks on US warships in the region and began firing missiles at Israel in response to Israel restarting its bombing campaign on Gaza.
President Trump is threatening the Houthis with “annihilation,” but the year-long US bombing campaign launched by President Biden did not stop the Yemeni group, and a brutal US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen from 2015 to 2022 also failed to remove them from power. The Houthis have maintained that a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade would be the only way to stop their attacks.
