US air strikes on Yemen have led to an "unprecedented" death toll in the country, according to a new report by a monitoring group.
Airwars analyzed hundreds of open source civilian harm claims and concluded that US President Donald Trump's bombardment of Yemen has been more deadly than any of his predecessors'.
The report suggests Trump's military campaign has killed almost as many civilians in 52 days as in the previous 23 years of US military action against Yemen.
In the period between the first recorded U.S. strike in Yemen to the beginning of Trump’s campaign in March, Airwars tracked at least 258 civilians allegedly killed by U.S. actions.
In less than two months of Operation Rough Rider, Airwars documented at least 224 civilians in Yemen killed by U.S. airstrikes - nearly doubling the civilian casualty toll in Yemen by U.S. actions since 2002.
The two deadliest civilian harm incidents publicly recorded in the history of U.S. military operations in Yemen, according to the report, occurred during strikes on Ras Isa Port and Saada’s Remand Detention Prison allegedly killed at least 152 civilians and injured almost 200 others.
The report mentioned that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have now questioned the legality of both strikes.
Some of the most advanced munitions in the U.S. military arsenal were deployed, including the first documented use of the StormBreaker in combat - a new precision-guided U.S bomb. U.S. interventions in Yemen, whether direct or indirect, have been brutal and have resulted in many civilian casualties.
Airwars analysis acknowledged that “Gaining a full understanding of civilian harm in Yemen is challenging, particularly through open sources, noticing that the Houthis have sought to control the information environment, and often impose strict measures to prevent access to strike sites.