‘Double strikes’ allegedly used on Venezuelan boats accused of trafficking drugs were also used extensively under the US’s Obama administration.

A double-tap strike essentially means carrying out two strikes on the same target – often wounding or killing medics and civilians who are coming to the aid of people harmed in the first attack. Here is more about how the United States has used such strikes throughout history.

The US is believed to be one of the main countries to have used double-tap strikes extensively in recent history. Here is a brief timeline of Washington’s alleged or confirmed use of double-tap strikes on various targets.

2025: Yemen

In April, the US conducted air strikes on the Ras Isa oil port in Yemen.

In a social media post, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the objective of these strikes was “to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen”.

The strike killed at least 80 people and wounded another 150, according to the Hodeidah Health Office in Yemen. The Houthi-led government said that the strikes had been made on a civilian facility.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an American Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, said the US struck the site a second time – a “double tap” – just as first responders were arriving at the scene. The US has never confirmed this attack was a double tap.

2012: Pakistan

During the administration of US President Barack Obama, US missiles hit a tent in Zowi Sidgi, a remote village in North Waziristan, in July 2012, in what was described by people on the ground as a double strike. The US claimed it was targeting alleged al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the region.

According to Amnesty International’s Mustafa Qadri, who was speaking to the BBC at the time, a group of miners and woodcutters had gathered in the tent for dinner.

Moments after the first strike, when people had arrived to assist those who were hurt, a second US missile hit the same location, local people said. Eighteen people died in total in the two strikes.

2003 and 2004: Iraq

In 2004, US soldiers attacked the Fallujah mosque in the Al Anbar governorate of Iraq, claiming they were being fired upon. Afterwards, they shot at injured Iraqis inside the mosque.

NBC News correspondent Kevin Sites, who was embedded with the US military, reported that a US soldier had shot an unarmed, wounded Iraqi prisoner at the mosque. The next day, Sites filmed an American soldier shouting at Iraqis in the mosque, accusing them of pretending to be dead.

Footage from the mosque attack sparked controversy, prompting an investigation by the US military into whether a US soldier who shot a prisoner had acted in self-defence, legitimately fearing a surprise attack. Investigators found insufficient evidence to charge the soldier.