ABU DHABI (Dispatches) – The United Arab Emirates has hired a U.S. security contractor to start an Israeli-style targeted killing program in Yemen in 2015 against figures undesired by Abu Dhabi, a report reveals.
U.S. media outlet BuzzFeed carried the report, identifying the U.S. company as Delaware-headquartered Spear Operations Group.
"There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen,” said Abraham Golan, the Hungarian-Zionist founder of the group.
"I was running it. We did it. It was sanctioned by the UAE within the coalition,” he added, referring to a Saudi Arabian-led coalition, which has been attacking Yemen since March 2015.
The UAE named the group's first target as Anssaf Ali Mayo, a local leader of al-Islah, a political party branded by the emirates as a "terrorist group.”
"It was the first attack,” an al-Islah spokesperson told BuzzFeed, recalling the date it got underway as December 29, 2015.
Footage recorded by surveillance aircraft have shown the moment of the attack, which saw the squad attaching an explosive device to the door of the party’s headquarters in the Yemeni port city of Aden.
It shows the mercenaries running into UAE military vehicles, which had been escorting them, to flee. The bomb goes off and then another one, "booby trapped” to their SUV "to disguise the source of the first explosion,” is set off as the vehicles are seen speeding out of the area.
The attack, though, failed to kill the politician, who had left the building 10 minutes before, said a party official, who added that no one had died in the assault.
"The bombing was the first salvo in a string of unsolved assassinations that killed more than two dozen of the group’s leaders,” BuzzFeed said.
"As 2016 progressed, those watching the deteriorating situation in Yemen began to notice that members of al-Islah, and other clerics in Aden, were dropping dead at an alarming pace,” the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) has been training Saudi Arabian air force crew over the past four years as part of a secret deal, a report says.
The Daily Mail can disclose that 111 RAF personnel have been seconded to BAE Systems to train Royal Saudi Air Force aircrew and provide engineering support, including 21 sent during the first five months of this year.
In 2015, 34 RAF personnel were sent there, with 30 the following year and 26 in 2017, the report added.
"These personnel were all seconded to BAE Systems to provide training support to Royal Saudi Air Force aircrew and routine aircraft engineering support,” British defense minister Guto Bebb said in a written statement.
In addition, high-ranking British military advisers are in their control rooms to assist the Saudi-led coalition, which has been bombing Yemen since 2015, killing thousands of civilians.
BAE sources, however, have denied any involvement in military operations.
Some UK officers have also been sharing targeting techniques for several years and, according to Riyadh, they have access to the "target list.”
According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, "All UK military personnel in Saudi Arabia are under UK command and control.
"We have an ongoing and wide- ranging defense engagement relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has included the provision of training courses and advice and guidance.”
In March this year Britain and Saudi Arabia signed a controversial aid agreement worth £100 million.
London is already the target of strong criticism from rights groups for its multibillion-pound arms sales to Saudi Arabia, during the kingdom’s deadly war on Yemen.