Just three weeks into U.S. President Donald Trump’s air campaign against Yemen, reports emerged that the operation was nearing $1 billion in costs—a figure likely underestimated. More striking, however, is the volume of civilian infrastructure hit, indicating a lack of military targets.

The U.S. has killed at least 130 civilians in Yemen since launching its offensive in mid-March, including massacres in residential areas that left hundreds more injured. Despite Trump’s claim—just two weeks in—that Ansar Allah had already been “decimated,” airstrikes have continued for over a month with no tangible progress.

Frustration has bubbled to the surface. Trump administration officials, speaking anonymously to corporate media, have voiced concerns. Three sources briefed on “Operation Rough Rider” told CNN that nearly $1 billion had been spent in under three weeks on airstrikes, including costly B-2 stealth bomber deployments—with minimal results.

We just went to the place where the US bombed a Residential building last night in Sana’a Yemen killing 5 civilians and injuring 15 others. This is totally against International Law, it’s Barbarian, it’s Terrorism. Will any European State condemn this US Terrorism..? pic.twitter.com/CDMnpljVeo

— Mick Wallace (@wallacemick) March 24, 2025

The recent deployment of nuclear-capable B-2 bombers to the U.S. military base in Diego Garcia was perceived as a major threat to Yemen. Yet, in October 2024, American B-2 bombers failed to destroy an Ansar Allah military facility.

Pentagon officials have also warned that the campaign risks depleting weapons stockpiles meant to deter China. They reported that hundreds of millions of dollars in high-tech munitions are being rapidly burned through with “limited success.”

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Ansar Allah-led government continues to engage U.S. warships and vows to escalate in defense of Gaza. Since Sana’a imposed a blockade on the Red Sea in November 2023—effectively halting Israeli shipping for 16 months—U.S., Israeli, and British airstrikes have inflicted at least 964 civilian casualties across Yemen.

Washington claims the Ansar Allah leadership has suffered heavy losses, asserting that numerous senior figures have been assassinated—though no list of names has been provided to substantiate the claims. Instead, the U.S. is escalating its bombardment of densely populated areas, including a water facility in Hodeidah, which cut off access to clean water for 50,000 villagers.

Despite the mounting civilian toll, pro-Israel Washington-based think tanks continue to justify the campaign. The Atlantic Council recently published a piece dismissing claims that Iran had abandoned Ansar Allah—asserting it was a ruse to stall Trump’s offensive—despite the fact that Ansar Allah has never publicly pushed such a narrative.

In a Truth Social post, Trump published video of an airstrike on a tribal gathering in a Yemeni village, boasting it was a leadership meeting. In doing so, he appeared to confirm for the first time that a U.S. vessel had been sunk by Ansar Allah.

This isn’t the first time Trump officials have glorified deadly strikes. An airstrike that killed a newborn baby was described as “excellent” by Vice President J.D. Vance in a leaked Signal group chat reported by The Atlantic.

With no congressional mandate, little legal justification, and costs exceeding $1 billion, the war in Yemen remains unpopular and strategically unclear. Israel’s own strikes on Yemen—often targeting civilian infrastructure such as gas stations and Hodeidah Port—offer a grim precedent.

U.S. officials have attempted to frame their military campaign as a defense of international shipping. Yet Yemen’s actions in the Red Sea have targeted Israel specifically, while neutral nations continue to navigate freely. Trump’s full-scale assault now threatens to eclipse the Biden administration’s own Yemen campaign, which cost taxpayers roughly $600 million per month.

Feature photo | A Yemeni walks over the debris of a building destroyed in US airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, March 24, 2025. Photo | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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