(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
First week of renewed US bombing in Yemen [1]
[]
Date: 2025-03
View this email in your browser Subscribe to Updates
US STRIKES SURGE UPDATE 15-21 MARCH 2025
Yemen Data Project will be sending out additional updates to cover the recent surge in US-led air raids. This additional data summary covers the first week of US strikes from 15-21 March. Deadliest Week of Bombing Since January 2022 in Renewed US Strikes At least 53 civilian casualties in 38 strikes in seven days The first week of US-led strikes under the Trump administration killed at least 25 civilians, including four children in a significant surge of American-led bombings.
Yemen Data Project recorded 53 civilian casualties¹ in 38 US-led strikes² from 15 to 21 March, in the heaviest and deadliest week of bombing since the last months of Saudi-UAE air war in January 2022.
At least 25 civilians were recorded killed and 28 injured in the 38 strikes in the week. More than 55% of strikes hit non-military,³ civilian targets, a marked increase from the 16% of US-UK strikes that hit non-military targets between January 2024 and January 2025, under the Biden administration.
The deadliest strike in the first week of President Trump’s bombing campaign was on 16 March in Sa’ada when a strike hit civilian homes in Qahzah in As Safra district. Four children were among 10 civilians recorded killed in the strike. A further 11 civilians were injured, including two children.
More civilians were killed in the first week of Trump’s new campaign than in 12 months of US-UK strikes from January 2024 to January 2025.
US-led strikes were recorded every night from 15 March to 21 March between the hours of 7pm and 6am, a particularly busy time of day during the holy month of Ramadan.
Ceasefire ends, return to tit-for-tat
US-UK and Israeli bombings intensified in the run-up to the Gaza ceasefire, but no strikes had been recorded since the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on 19 January, until 15 March.
In parallel to the pause in bombings, there were no Houthi attacks on either commercial vessels or US warships in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden following the start of the Gaza ceasefire. No Houthi attacks against Israel - which had also intensified in early January - were reported once the Gaza ceasefire began.
In the week preceding the restart of US strikes on 15 March, the Houthis gave an ultimatum of four days for Israel to lift its siege on Gaza - which had cut off food, water and humanitarian aid - or they would once again block Israeli ships from travelling through the Red Sea.
When the deadline expired on 11 March, Houthi officials announced their intention to revive their blockade on Israeli and Israel-linked vessels transiting the Red Sea. The Houthis have not launched an attack on commercial shipping since 18 November 2024 and had not yet targeted Israeli-linked vessels when US strikes began. President Trump warned the Houthis via social media that “HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE SEEN BEFORE” after the strikes started on the evening of 15 March.
The Houthis responded to the surge in American bombings by launching more than a dozen missiles and drones at the USS Harry S. Truman stationed in the northern Red Sea. Houthi ballistic missiles were also launched at Israel after they restarted their bombing of Gaza on 17 March.
TOTAL NUMBERS 15 - 21 MARCH 2025 CIVILIAN CASUALTIES 53 STRIKES 38
TOTAL NUMBERS 12 JANUARY 2024 - 19 JANUARY 2025 CIVILIAN CASUALTIES 308 AIR RAIDS & STRIKES 327 OPERATION POSEIDON ARCHER STRIKES: 307 CIVILIAN CASUALTIES: 85 OPERATION LONG ARM AIR RAIDS: 20 CIVILIAN CASUALTIES: 223
Up to 74 munitions were deployed in the 38 strikes from the 15th to 21st of March.
Majority of strikes hit civilian sites
One of the 38 strikes recorded in the week hit an identified military target: Houthi forces in At Tuhayat district in the south of Al-Hudaydah governorate. In 16 strikes the target could not be identified and was catagorised as ‘unknown’. The remaining 21 strikes out of 38 were recorded as hitting non-military³, civilian sites.
Civilian targets hit included: a medical storage facility, a medical centre, a school, a wedding hall, residential areas, a cotton gin facility, a health office, Bedouin tents, and Al-Eiman University.
75% of the civilian casualties recorded happened in strikes on residential areas. The single bombing of a boat was a strike on the Galaxy Leader, a vessel the Houthis hijacked in the Red Sea in November 2023 and has since been docked in As Salif port in Hodeidah.
All 53 civilian casualties in the week were killed and injured in five strikes, three of which were pre-dawn, a few hours apart on 16 March. The first was a strike in the early hours in Sa’ada, on a school in Saqayn district, killing at least two civilians and injuring two more. Shortly after, a strike in the Faj Attan area of Sana’a injured one civilian, preceding the strike in Qahzah, Sa’ada that killed 10 and injured 11. Four children were among the dead. The deadly strikes were three of 12 bombings carried out before dawn across seven governorates 16 March.
Two strikes on Al-Juraf area in Shuaub district of the Capital (Aminat al Asimah) on 15 and 19 March hit a residential area and a wedding hall. On 15 March, 13 civilians were recorded killed and nine injured. On 19 March, the strike on the wedding hall injured nine civilians, including two children. Past Issues Background to the international operations against the Houthis
The UK was the main partner in the US-led Operation Poseidon Archer- a coalition bombing campaign launched under the Biden administration, with British fighter jets taking part in some strikes. Australia, Bahrain, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and New Zealand were named as additional supporting nations. The US launched Operation Poseidon Archer on 12 January 2024 as an offensive operation against the Houthis in response to Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Two other international naval operations against pro-Houthi forces are stated as being defensive. The US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian and the EU naval coalition: Operation Aspides. All three have taken military action against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean. On 20 July 2024, Israel carried out air raids under the banner of Operation Long Arm. YDP data now includes Israeli air raids. All air raids and strikes were halted on 19 January in parallel with the Gaza ceasefire. On 15 March 2025, the US began a renewed bombing campaign - the first strikes in Yemen under the new Trump administration. It’s unclear if these strikes still fall under Operation Poseidon Archer, or are a separate operation. Although British fighter jets and naval vessels have yet to take part directly in strikes, RAF air tankers have reportedly provided air-to-air refuelling in support of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier while strikes were being carried out. Given Trump’s rhetoric on the Biden-era strikes and the previous administration’s response to the Houthis, YDP’s published data on strikes for Operation Poseidon Archer, both air raids and naval strikes, is reported as the Biden-era US-UK operation from 12 January 2024 to 19 January 2025. The as-yet-to-be-named operation under President Trump, which began on 15 March 2025, is being recorded as a separate bombing camping. Share Share Notes on data collection and terminology
Yemen Data Project's founding purpose is to collect and disseminate data on the conduct of the war in Yemen with the purpose of increasing transparency and promoting accountability. This has been done in the absence of official military records from any of the parties to the conflict. However, in contrast to the previous Saudi/UAE-led air war from 2015 to 2022, the US, UK and now Israel have publicly released information on strikes as they have happened. YDP's data collection is from open sources, therefore US, UK and Israeli government and military statements are now included as sourcing material along with other open sources.
1 Civilian casualties are recorded from open sources with the most conservative numbers used. Compared to the period of the Saudi-led bombing campaign (2015-2022) there is currently reduced balance in the open sources available. Casualty figures are a best estimate of numbers and are presented in good faith. YDP recognises the limitations in the accuracy of the figures. Open-source reporting of casualty numbers is often scarce or biased with limited access to multiple or independent sources, which results in open-source reporting of significantly different casualty numbers for the same incident. The process of the civilian casualty data collation includes in-depth research into incidents with civilian casualties, reviewing video material when available, published lists of victim names and cross-referencing with human rights groups and other entities collecting data on civilian casualties. However, there is increasingly limited independent assessments of civilian casualty incidents in Houthi-controlled territory and therefore an absence of non-Houthi aligned open-source material. Casualty records based on open-sources - as YDP records are - will therefore reflect that imbalance. YDP will always up-date its records to reflect new open-source information and assessments should they come to light.
2 Strike refers to a single incident which may be either an air raid or naval-launched strike. During US-led Operation Poseidon Archer not all strikes were air raids carried out by fighter jets. The more recent strikes under President Trump are widely being reported as air raids/airstrikes launched from US aircraft carriers. However, YDP does not collect data on how munitions are deployed whether air-to-land or sea-to-land. Therefore, ‘strike’ will still be used as a catch-all to describe air raids as well as naval sea-to-land strikes. As with air raids - the term used by YDP in the Saudi/UAE air war - one strike incident includes all strikes on a single location within approximately one hour and therefore may comprise multiple munitions or projectiles being deployed. Munitions deployed per strike can vary. Read more.
3 Non-military The dataset lists target category (military and non-military) and subcategory for each incident, where information on the target is available. When listing permanent structures the target category refers to the original use of the target e.g. a school hit by an air raid is referred to as non-military and a school building, with no further assessment made on its use at the time of the strike, or any possible change of use over the course of the conflict.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://mailchi.mp/f747387e081f/march2025-update1-us-led-strikes-surge-in-yemen-14761157?e=52da7114c5
Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/
