Watan-A group of mercenaries from the American-funded “Spear” group, sponsored by the United Arab Emirates, revealed details of the assassination operations they carried out in Yemen for the first time in front of the camera.

The British network “BBC” broadcast what it claimed to be the first television interview with American mercenaries from the “Spear Operations Group,” hired by the United Arab Emirates to carry out assassination operations in Yemen.

At a time when Houthi attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea shed light on the international dimensions of the Yemeni conflict, a BBC investigation revealed disturbing evidence indicating that the tasks of the “Spear Operations Group” were not limited to carrying out assassinations but also included training Emirati officers in assassination techniques.

The UAE and the Interference in Yemen and its People

One of the members of the group, with a muscular arm adorned with tattoos, appeared in the video cleaning a recently acquired machine gun. He stated that he would participate in the global war on terrorism, as he claimed, and mentioned that he would track down “bad people” and “evil individuals,” according to his expression.

The mercenary working for the UAE, bald-headed with long mustaches, stated, “I love chasing the bad guys and eliminating them.” The report showed a dusty road in what appeared to be a desert area, with off-road vehicles visible.

The journey from the headquarters to the city was described as extremely beautiful, with a strange mix of excitement, fear, and peculiar calmness. Another mercenary, who worked for Abu Dhabi in Yemen, revealed that they wanted to send a message and chose to use an “explosive and bomb.”

The mercenary claimed that he saw Al-Qaeda literally in every corner of a unspecified area and did not explain how he was certain that those he saw were from Al-Qaeda, as he claimed. A subsequent scene in the report depicted mercenaries engaging in armed conflict with unidentified individuals at a corner of a building in a Yemeni city.

A Yemeni bystander was heard saying that he heard an explosion at the door of his house, and he added that there was a burning car carrying explosives.

The United States militias carried out operations in Yemen in favor of Mohammed bin Zayed

American militias carried out operations in Yemen in support of Mohammed bin Zayed, according to the mentioned report. The American mercenaries reportedly led assassination missions in Yemen.

The report continued to state that armed factions in Yemen have an impact throughout the Middle East and beyond. The latest example was when the Houthi group attacked ships in the Red Sea. In response, the United States and the United Kingdom targeted about 30 sites across Yemen.

The “BBC” film delved into the complex roles played by Western and regional powers in the Yemen war. The report’s presenter, Nawal Al-Muqaffi, interviewed Isaac Gilmore, a former naval officer who later became the second-in-command of a U.S. military company called “Spear Operations Group.”

In December 2015, Isaac Gilmore was one of several American mercenaries hired to carry out assassination operations in Yemen on behalf of the UAE. He revealed that he met with Abraham Golan, an Israeli businessman and security contractor, the founder of the “Spear Operations Group.” After their agreement, Gilmore traveled to Abu Dhabi.

Relationship with Mohammed Dahlan

Gilmore stated that Golan developed a relationship with Mohammed Dahlan, and this was the group’s gateway to the United Arab Emirates. The goal of the agreement was to increase pressure on the ISIS organization and ensure that it did not become another chaotic center for terrorist activities.

Gilmore, along with Comstock and two other mercenaries from “Spear,” who requested anonymity, stated that Spear participated in training Emirati officers at the UAE military base in Aden.

An anonymous journalist told the report’s creator that he witnessed footage of such training. The mercenaries did not provide details on the nature of the training, but a high-ranking Yemeni military officer from Aden, who worked directly with the UAE, provided more details to the report’s creator.

Training Emirati Officers

As the mercenary file made them prominent in Aden and susceptible to exposure, their mission was changed to training Emirati officers, “who in turn trained local Yemenis in carrying out targeting,” as told by the Yemeni military officer interviewed for the report.

During the investigation, Nawal Al-Muqaffi also spoke to more than a dozen other Yemeni sources who affirmed this situation. Among them were two men who claimed to have carried out non-terrorism-related assassination operations after being trained by Emirati soldiers, and another man who stated that he was offered his release from a UAE prison in exchange for assassinating a prominent Yemeni political figure—a task he refused.

160 Assassination Operations

“Human Rights Reprieve” stated that they investigated 160 assassination operations carried out in Yemen between 2015 and 2018. Most of these occurred after 2016, and only 23 out of the 160 individuals killed had ties to terrorism.

All the killings were executed using the same tactics employed by Spear mercenaries—detonating an explosive device to divert attention, followed by targeted gunfire.

By 2017, the UAE assisted in building a quasi-military force, part of the Southern Transitional Council funded by the UAE. This organization is a security entity managing a network of armed groups throughout southern Yemen.

BBC found that despite the declared goal of American mercenaries to eliminate jihadist groups like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) in southern Yemen, the UAE continued recruiting former Al-Qaeda members into this security force to target and kill Yemeni civilians considered political enemies by the UAE.

Assassination operations in Yemen continue to date.