LONDON (Dispatches) – A new BBC investigation has found that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recruited former Al-Qaeda members and funded American mercenaries to carry out political assassinations in the country.
In the report, which was detailed in a documentary released on Monday, a whistleblower told the BBC that former members of militant group Al-Qaeda - which has long had a presence in south Yemen - were in fact hired to work with the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) in a security capacity.
The whistleblower provided the names of 11 former Al-Qaeda members allegedly working with the STC.
The documentary shows leaked court documents that reveal that an Al-Qaeda member said he was offered release from prison by UAE officers in exchange for carrying out assassinations.
Nasser al-Shiba, a former high-ranking Al-Qaeda operative suspected of involvement in an attack on the U.S. warship USS Cole, which killed 17 Americans in 2000, was also now working with one of the STC’s military units, sources told the BBC.
The report also includes testimonies from two employees of U.S. security company Spear Operations Group, who said they were hired by the UAE to conduct targeted killings in Yemen.
Aidarus al-Zubaidi, the head of the STC, has denied the claims of Al-Qaeda involvement in its military forces.
A probe by Buzzfeed previously revealed in 2018 that the UAE had hired the mercenaries to assassinate prominent members of al-Islah, the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
That report included leaked drone footage of a failed attempt in December 2015 to kill al-Islah’s Anssaf Ali Mayo and everyone in his office.
In the BBC documentary, former U.S. Navy Seal and Spear operative, Isaac Gilmore admitted that Mayo was among names on a “kill list”.
“Modern conflicts are unfortunately very opaque,” he said. “We see this in Yemen - one person’s civil leader and cleric, is another person’s terrorist leader.”
The deal between Spear and the UAE was struck in Abu Dhabi during a meeting that included Israeli-Hungarian founder of Spear Abraham Golan, as well as Mohammed Dahlan, an exiled former Palestinian politician, who has since become an adviser to Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed.