The British military joined the US in overnight airstrikes on Yemen, marking the first time the UK helped the US bomb the country under the Trump administration.
The UK participated in President Biden’s Yemen bombing campaign from January 2024 to January 2025, which failed to deter the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, who stopped their attacks once a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza on January 19.
The British Defense Ministry claimed that the overnight strikes targeted “a cluster of buildings, used by the Houthis to manufacture drones of the type used to attack ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, located some 15 miles south of Sanaa.”
The ministry offered no details about potential casualties. “The strike was conducted after dark, when the likelihood of any civilians being in the area was reduced yet further,” it said.
Yemen’s SABA news agency reported that “US-British aggression” targeted Sanaa as well as the provinces of Saada and Al Jawf. The SABA report said that a “number of civilian homes were damaged” by the strikes in a neighborhood of Sanaa.
President Trump’s bombing campaign has taken a huge toll on civilians, and the US military has refused to share any details about the over 1,000 strikes it has said it launched since March 15. On Monday, a US bombing hit an African migrant detention facility in Saada, killing 68.
According to the Yemen Data Project, US airstrikes on Yemen killed at least 158 civilians and wounded 342 from March 15 to April 22. If all of the casualties in the bombing of the migrant facility were migrants, which appears to be the case, that would bring the total number of civilians killed by the US to at least 226.
Ansar Allah leaders have repeatedly vowed they will only stop attacks on Israel and end their blockade on Israeli shipping if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. They have offered to stop attacking US warships if the US stops bombing Yemen, but the Trump administration has shown no interest in the offer.
