Pentagon's 2025 civilian casualty report draws fire for downplaying boat strike deaths

The Pentagon submitted its annual 2025 civilian casualty report to members of Congress, a document that controversially states no civilians were killed in the Trump administration’s boat-strike campaign despite evidence of over 220 victims labeled “narcoterrorists.” The same report admits that U.S. attacks likely caused hundreds of civilian injuries across Iran, Somalia, Yemen and other theaters, and records 153 civilian deaths and almost 250 wounds from the air and naval Operation Rough Rider in Yemen—figures the officials called “lowball” compared with independent counts of at least 238 dead and 467 injured.

Two unnamed senior officials described the report as a “total whitewash” and “sickening,” criticizing the Pentagon’s reduced civilian-harm mitigation capacity, now down to a single staffer after cuts by Secretary Pete Hegseth. Ongoing reviews include three incidents deemed likely to have harmed civilians and 15 still under assessment, while CENTCOM’s limited resources raise concerns about handling the surge of cases from the Iran war, where daily civilian harm reports were logged from February 28 to April 8. Lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, have warned that the cuts to civilian protection programs may leave the United States unable to meet legal obligations under the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.