Amnesty calls for US strike on Yemen to be investigated as war crime

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Amnesty International has called for a United States air strike on a migrant detention centre in Yemen to be investigated as a possible war crime.

In a report released on Tuesday, the rights group said the strike on April 28, 2025, hit a detention facility in Saada in northwestern Yemen, killing at least 68 detainees and injuring 47.

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The detention centre had operated for years as part of a larger prison complex and had previously been visited by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, who found no evidence the compound was being used for military purposes.

“The Trump administration’s approach to its air strikes in Yemen from March to May 2025 should have set off alarm bells in the USA and around the world,” said Nadia Dar, director of Amnesty International USA.

“Instead, the US administration has systematically weakened safeguards … while simultaneously displaying a dangerous disregard for the lives of civilians endangered by armed conflicts,” she added.

Survivors say they remain without support

Amnesty said survivors interviewed nearly one year after the strike were still suffering serious physical and psychological harm and many were unable to afford treatment.

The organisation spoke to six Ethiopian men wounded in the attack. It said five were unable to work because of their injuries while most now depended on financial support from relatives.

Four remain in Yemen, and two have returned to Ethiopia. One survivor, identified as Jirata, 30, said he lost one of his legs in the strike and had a metal rod inserted in the other.

“I have lost hope, and I have nothing left that keeps me going,” he said in testimony published by Amnesty.

“The US government caused all this, and as a result [of the air strike], I can no longer work and support myself. I want them to provide any type of reparation that will help with our life in any way possible, something that will revive my hope.”

No public findings released

After the strike, a US defence official said the military was assessing reports of civilian casualties.

Amnesty said that a year later, the US military’s Central Command had not publicly released the findings of any investigation or announced whether accountability measures would be taken.

Amnesty said the Yemen attack was among the deadliest civilian incidents linked to a US strike that it had documented in recent years.

The group also cited a US strike on a school in Minab, Iran, on March 16, which it said killed 156 people, including more than 120 children. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a separate investigation into another US strike in Minab was continuing.

Amnesty said its investigation found the US had failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm.

The organisation urged Washington to carry out prompt, transparent and independent investigations into strikes in Yemen and Iran and called on the US Congress to increase oversight of military operations and ensure reparations for civilians harmed.