Summary
This paper examines the human cost of United States’ military operations in areas controlled by Ansar Allah Group (Houthis) in Yemen during “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” conducted during President Joe Biden’s administration from December 18, 2023 – January 19, 2025, and “Operation Rough Rider,” carried out during President Donald Trump’s administration from March 15 – May 6, 2025. These operations were launched in response to attacks by Ansar Allah Group (Houthis) on ships and tankers in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden — using rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles — that targeted vessels associated with Israel or bound for Israeli ports, concurrent with the Israeli government war in the Gaza Strip that began on October 7, 2023 and was directly supported by the United States.
In addition to the economic, psychosocial, and community impacts of U.S attacks, the paper documents civilian casualties resulting from 46 U.S. airstrike incidents. Those incidents caused at least 576 civilian casualties (213 killed and 363 injured), including 50 children and 25 women. The strikes hit civilian structures such as homes, shops, farms, residential neighborhoods, and infrastructure.
The U.S. airstrikes also caused severe damage to infrastructure and critical facilities, compounding the humanitarian suffering of local populations by striking essential service facilities, particularly in rural areas that already face acute shortages of clean water, electricity, and health services. Given Yemen’s economic deterioration and the catastrophic humanitarian situation produced by the armed conflict that has been ongoing since September 2014, it is likely that the U.S. strikes expanded the cycle of poverty in Yemen by increasing unemployment and multiplying the number of households that lost breadwinners and sources of income.
Survivors and eyewitnesses compared the U.S. attacks in Operations Prosperity Guardian and Rough Rider to earlier strikes carried out by the Saudi/United Arab Emirates (UAE)–led coalition during “Operation Decisive Storm” and “Operation Restoring Hope” (March 2015–April 2022) on many of the same sites. They reported that the U.S. strikes produced heavier civilian tolls than these earlier strikes, which had attracted extensive international criticism and calls for accountability.
Among the most enduring and long-term effects of the U.S. attacks on civilians are the loss of breadwinners through death or disabling injury, and the destruction of livelihoods when farms, shops, factories, workshops, and small enterprises were damaged or destroyed. Hundreds of civilian victims lost their jobs when industrial and critical facilities were wholly or partially destroyed. Even after the U.S. operations ended in May 2025, affected people could not secure adequate means of subsistence or overcome the severe economic hardship caused by the loss of their businesses or property. Affected households whose homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable were forced to migrate, crowd into relatives’ homes, or rent small rooms or shops (the local “dukan,” a small retail space unsuitable for habitation), and encountered major difficulties in enrolling their children in school. U.S. strikes left many families incapable of providing adequate care for children. Wives who lost husbands face harsh lives and acute insecurity in a society ill-equipped to support victims due to its dire economic and living conditions.
Field data in this paper also indicate limited population displacement following certain U.S. strikes in repeatedly and heavily targeted areas, and in localities whose residents feared re-targeting because of proximity to military sites or because families were perceived to be affiliated with Ansar Allah. The attacks have undermined communal ties, as communities began to regard certain areas or families as stigmatized targets and avoided visiting or approaching them for fear they would also be targeted. Many victims — particularly children and women — suffer severe psychological distress, haunted by scenes of terror, fear, and destruction. Access to psychosocial support and adequate medical care remains largely absent.
The U.S. strikes display a range of violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), including breaches of the proportionality principle, failures to take feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm, and failures to respect the principle of distinction, as evidenced by attacks on infrastructure, essential service facilities, and other civilian objects. These violations of IHL are documented in a detailed list in the Appendix.
Meanwhile, Ansar Allah’s continued targeting of commercial vessels associated with Israel in the Red Sea aggravated the plight of Yemeni fishers in some coastal areas. Ongoing naval confrontations and persistent drone overflights deprived them of a principal livelihood—fishing—forcing many to refrain from going to sea in their small, rudimentary boats and to avoid passing ships for fear for their safety.
The needs expressed by interviewed civilian victims centered on urgent and appropriate medical care for the wounded, both for physical injuries and psychological trauma—especially for those who still have shrapnel lodged in their bodies, those who never received any treatment, or those in need of surgical procedures. Victims also require urgent humanitarian and cash assistance, and financial compensation commensurate with the scale and type of harm suffered by them and their families. Affected households need compensation for partially damaged homes and reconstruction of destroyed homes, or provision of adequate shelter and restitution for damage to property. Affected communities also clearly need rehabilitation and reconstruction of destroyed essential service facilities—health centers, water and electricity supplies—and protection from hazards posed by remnants of bombs and munitions used in the strikes.