Washington’s attacks on Ras Issa port and a detention center in Saada are the two deadliest strikes in the history of US operations in Yemen.

US President Donald Trump’s recent war on Yemen killed almost as many civilians in less than two months as in the last 23 years of Washington’s military action in the country combined, according to an investigation by Airwars released on 18 June.

“In the period between the first recorded US strike in Yemen to the beginning of Trump’s campaign in March … at least 258 civilians allegedly killed by US actions. In less than two months of Operation Rough Rider … at least 224 civilians in Yemen [were] killed by US airstrikes – nearly doubling the civilian casualty toll in Yemen by US actions since 2002,” it said.

According to Airwars, the two deadliest strikes “publicly recorded in the history of US military operations in Yemen” took place during Trump’s campaign against the country.

The US attack on Ras Issa Port and the Remand Detention Prison in Saada killed at least 152 civilians and injured nearly 200.

The strike on the detention center, which took place in late April, killed over 68 African migrants. The US attack on Ras Issa port occurred over a week earlier, killing around 80 Yemeni civilians.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have said both attacks should be investigated as potential war crimes.

During Trump’s campaign, dubbed Operation Rough Rider, Airwars documented “more incidents with higher numbers of casualties per strike than in any other US campaign.”

The incidents in which civilians were killed by Washington were concentrated in the heavily populated Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and in Saada.

Airwars noted that “the scale of the campaign resulted in an unprecedented level of civilian casualties per incident.”

The first known US drone strike against Yemen took place in 2002. In 2009, the administration of former US president Barack Obama launched a drone campaign against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). At least 47 civilians were killed in a US drone strike on Yemen in December that year.

Several other deadly strikes on Yemen were carried out during Obama’s presidency.

In 2019, during Trump’s first term as president, over 60 civilians were killed in a US strike on Syria. The Pentagon concluded that the attack was “not a violation of the military’s rules of engagement” and that nobody should be held accountable.

The US president ended his campaign against Yemen in May 2025 after burning through over $1 billion in munitions and failing to significantly impact the Ansarallah resistance movement. The agreement did not include Ansarallah halting operations against Israel.

The Airwars investigation coincides with widespread anticipation of the US entering the war against Iran alongside Israel.

The Cradle Media report