The United States may have committed war crimes by attacking a prison in Yemen in the spring, human rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The group claimed on Wednesday that its own investigation found that “the US airstrike on a migrant detention center in Saada, northwestern Yemen, on April 28, 2025, which killed and wounded dozens of African migrants, was an indiscriminate attack.”
Amnesty International said, “US authorities should promptly and transparently investigate this as a war crime.” In Wednesday’s article,
In March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took an oath Wage a “relentless” campaign against Yemen’s Houthi militants until the group stopped attacking ships in the Red Sea.
“This campaign is about restoring freedom of navigation and deterrence. The minute the Houthis say, ‘We’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones,’ this campaign will end,” Hegseth said in an interview on Fox News at the time.
“But until then, it will remain incredible.”
President Trump ordered strikes against Houthi targets late last winter, and promised to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the militants end their attacks on civilian and military vessels in the vital sea corridor.
Amnesty International said on Wednesday that the Yemen attack “has caused devastating civilian harm to vulnerable migrants” most of whom were held in detention centers by the Houthis simply because of their “irregular immigration status”.
Christine Beckerle, deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International, said in the report, “The harrowing testimony of survivors paints a clear picture of a civilian building, packed with detainees, being bombed indiscriminately. This was a fatal failure by the US to comply with one of its core obligations under international humanitarian law: to make every possible effort to verify whether the object attacked was a military objective.”
Late last year Amnesty International also alleged that Israel was committing genocide during the war in Gaza Hamas in the area.
Hill has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
