The middle east and beyond, most recently as the houthi group attacks ships in the red sea. the us and uk hit around 30 sites across yemen. � this film is about the complex roles western and regional powers have played in yemens war. And the story begins with an assassination mission. Ifirst met Isaac Gilmore in 2020. Hes a former navy seal, who later became Second In Command of a private Us Military Firm called Spear Operations Group. I was surprised isaac agreed to speak to me because at the time, Human Rights Lawyers were trying to prosecute spear for war crimes. One of the reasons that i agreed to participate in this and be part of this documentary is to be very clear about what were doing and why. This isnt, you know, innocent until proven guilty. Its war. How did you get involved with the operation in yemen . So ultimately, i met abraham, abraham golan, whos a brother and a friend. Abra ham developed a relationship with Mohammed Dahlan and that was our path through to the uae government. We met with the appropriate bodies within the uae government. The pitch was to put pressure on isis and alqaeda in the state of yemen and make sure that it didnt become another chaotic hub of terrorist activity, especially with the proximity to the horn of africa. In 2015, yemen was gripped by fighting on several fronts. A group called the houthis had taken over the capital, sanaa. They also briefly held aden, before a saudi uae Led Coalition backed by the us and the uk recaptured the city. Alqaeda had long been a presence in the south and were now gaining territory. The us feared they might plan terrorist operations beyond yemens borders. The uae took over security for Southern Yemen and became the us� s main counterterrorism ally in the region. That was the circumstances that set the stage for us to be involved in yemen in the first place. We had had the sign off, simply a handshake, and then we had to manage the business side of it. How much were you offered . The requirement was 1. 5 million per month. The next step was then to recruit guys. Gun fires if we were going to target somebody that was on this list, then we made sure, in our minds, that were not going to go out and murder somebody because this guy doesnt like that guy. We would do our own due diligence. Who gave you the targets . We received the target intelligence from the uae government. How did you receive them . In intelligence packets. Cards . Cards. And one of them was ansaf mayo . Yes. The initial operation was to go after the head of the snake, so to speak, and so it was targeting the al islah leader. Al islah is the yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Three years later, when the uae� s drone footage three years later, when the uae� s drone footage was leaked to the international media, ansaf found out that spear had been hired to kill him. Ansaf fled to yemen after the attack and now lives in exile in saudi arabia. On ansaf mayo in particular, what was it that made you decide that he is a terrorist . Well, theres a couple of things. One, we already know that he was being financed by the Muslim Brotherhood, and i can tie it all together. But the Muslim Brotherhood arent. Theyre not a terrorist organisation. Yeah, they are. The United States government doesnt believe the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organisation. Yeah, they did. At one point, they did. Yes, they did. Ansaf� s party, al islah, or the reform party, is one of the biggest political organisations in yemen. Its policies are inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, a Popular International islamist movement. The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in several countries, including the uae, where their political activism and support for elections is seen as a threat to the rule of the royal family. But the us has never classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. If your handlers, the uae, said they are definitely terrorists, you had to trust that . Yeah, absolutely. Its how it works. The mercenaries will talk about their attempt to kill ansaf mayo because their cover was blown, but theyre still guarded about the rest of their list. So tell me about one of the other targets you pursued, other than mayo. Im not going to mention any names. Yeah. 0k. Yeah. So, we had another target. All right, this one was kind of interesting. Now, this guy was in a walled compound. It was a three storey house. Not very big, but three storeys. Guys were asleep, but as soon as we started coming in, they heard the gunshots, everybody got out of bed. And we went in and executed the targets. It was a fair fight. 0k . The story of assassinations first came to my attention while i was documenting Human Rights Abuses in yemen. Hey how are you . Baraa shiban is a yemeni caseworker with reprieve� s investigative team. What you see here is basically tens and tens of assassinations. The team has been compiling a list of assassinations in Southern Yemen. Between 2015 and 2018, theyve counted 102. Theyve all followed the same pattern, placing ied bombs on doors or on cars, and then someone comes after and starts shooting the individual. If you see, then, here, you see a surge in assassinations that are happening throughout 2016. This happens after the arrival of spear into yemen. 25 of these assassinations took place during the months that dale and isaac were in yemen. They said they assassinated a person with all of his bodyguards . Yeah. This fits in. One of the names on baraas list is ahmed al idrisi. He was assassinated the day after spear� s attempt on ansaf mayo. Ahmed al idrisi had his Security Detail around him all the time. What we understood is there was an assault that killed him and everyone around him. The details of this Assassination Match what dale told us about the target he refused to name. Isaac and dale told me that theyd made visits to the port because they were surveilling someone there. So it fits the description, fits the date. Ahmed al idrisi was a leader of one of the Yemeni Forces that helped drive out the houthis. At the time of his death, his group had control of the port in aden and refused to hand it over to the uae backed forces. Aden� s port is a key strategic asset. Uae backed forces took it over immediately after idrisis assassination. Were you involved in the assassination of ahmed al idrisi, which happened on december 31st, 2015 . No. Reprieve was one of two Human Rights Organisations that investigated the assassination. Both told us they now believe spear were behind it, as do other sources. How many targets were you given . Um. Over 40. Yeah. And how many targets did you execute . Not answering. By early 2016, dale and isaacs time with spear was coming to an end. I left spear and came back to the us. Do you know if spear is still active now in yemen . No. We asked the Us Department of defense and the State Department to talk to us about spear, but they declined. Siren wails throughout 2016, assassinations continued to dominate the local news in aden. At the beginning, when those assassinations were carried out, people kept saying, this is operations done by isis, and so on. It was not until 2018 when we started to pinpoint that actually, this is part of a systematic targeting policy. When you dont have a unified definition about who is a terrorist, you have this chaotic situation. These are extrajudicial killings, and the most important thing is that its still happening until today. So, after we started to look closely into evidence of. Reprieve has obtained what they believe is a Financial Statement from the uae� s foreign ministry. It states how money described as aid for yemen has really been spent. That shows here quarterly payments being paid to Spear Operations Group. And this is the amount in saudi riyals. Mm hm. This comes to close to 17 million. We know that spear were there at 2015. This is 2020. What have they been doing there for the last five years . I think thats the main question. What were they doing . To answer that, youd need to have been inside the uae bases in yemen where spear operated. I found a Whistle Blower who was there. This man is a senior Yemeni Officer from aden who worked directly with the uae. Hes asked us to conceal his identity. October seven i asked spear� s founder, abraham golan, whether his mercenaries had trained emiratis in assassination techniques, but he didnt respond. In 2017, the uae set up the Southern Transitional council, or stc, in yemen. One of its roles was to run security in the south. Its forces included an elite Counterterrorism Unit. I met the head of the stc, aidarus al zoubaidi. Hes one of the most powerful figures in yemens government and works closely with the uae. Off camera, zoubaidis Media Adviser intervened. Zoubaidi denies that the uae is sponsoring assassinations of its political enemies in yemen, but after months of trying, ive managed to obtain a uae kill list. Its from 2018 and is seven pages long. It was leaked by a source who was working with the emiratis and was horrified by the names he saw on the list. It includes this woman, huda al sarari. Hudas in geneva to receive an award for her work investigating the uae� s Human Rights Abuses in yemen. Applause and cheering in the end, it wasnt huda who was attacked. It was her son. After a month in intensive care, mohsen died. He was 18. Eyewitnesses told the prosecutor that they recognised the gunman as a member of a Counterterrorism Unit funded by the uae, but nobody was charged. Huda now lives in exile. Shes still in fear of her life. The Yemeni Officer who witnessed the uae� s Counterterrorism Operations had a further allegation about the men hired to kill. The Whistle Blowerjust sent me this document that has a list of names. These are all guys that worked with isis or alqaeda in yemen. He said most of the 11 men on the list had been serving sentences for terrorism. We were unable to verify all of them, but further evidence has emerged. This is nasser al shibah. Once a high ranking alqaeda operative, he was jailed for terrorism, but later released. A Yemeni Government minister whod investigated the case told us shibah was a known suspect in the attack on the uss cole, which killed 17 american sailors. Despite this, the uae recruited him to command one of the Military Units theyre backing. Hes pictured here with the head of the stc. Multiple sources have confirmed shibah is working with the uae. The Yemeni Government minister whod investigated the case told us he had informed the us authorities of shibah� s suspected involvement in alqaedas attack on the uss cole and his current role. We put our evidence to the Us State Department and the department of defense, who declined to comment. Peace is still out of reach in yemen. The houthis maintain their grip on the north of the country. Their attacks on red sea shipping, which they say are to support the palestinians in gaza, have broadened the conflict. The uae continues to control the Security Apparatus in the south. Despite the evidence that the uae is pursuing its own agenda, undermining stability and making it harder for the Yemeni Government to return, the uae is still a key ally for the usa. We put a series of questions about Spear Operations Group to the cia. A spokesman said the idea that the cia signed off on such activity is false. Us laws covering Mercenary Activity are unclear. No one from spear has been prosecuted. Ok, so i guess, you know, the last time we met was, how long ago, three years ago . Yes, february of 2020. You know, did you feel like the operation you took part of was legal . Yes. Is that because there was some sort of nod from washington . No, its because we were in line with the us� s mission in the region and we were participating with an ally of the us. One thing we discussed last time is the kill list. One of the names that was on the list that ive seen is huda sarari, whos a female, a human rights lawyer. Not on my list. So the list you have is something different. I would absolutely remember if that name was on the list. To date, spear have not been prosecuted for their role in the uae� s assassination programme, and the families of victims of the assassinations in Southern Yemen have yet to receive justice. Hello there. Saturday brought quite a bit of sunshine to england and wales. A dry day for many, and a lovely end to the day here in north somerset. Further north, though, for Northern Ireland and scotland, the day turned out to be quite windy and we did have a fair bit of cloud coming in off the atlantic, associated with the jet Stream Pattern. Well, thisjet Stream Pattern for sunday is going to be bringing a very mild air mass across the uk and we could well see some exceptional temperatures across Northern Areas of scotland through sunday afternoon, as we will see in just a moment. Before we get there, though, the southerly wind at the moment is bringing occasional patches of drizzle to coast and hills for scotland and for Northern Ireland, although many areas will stay dry and have a dry start to the day on sunday. Mild across the northwest. Weve got the cooler air across england and wales. A few mist patches to start the day on sunday. Quickly clearing, and then a lovely morning for most of you. Into the afternoon, though, a cold front will bring a spell of rain to Northern Ireland and western scotland, and some very strong winds working into the hebrides and the north west of the highlands. 60mph, maybe 70mph, gusts here, but on the other side of the mountains, helped on by the fern effect, we could see temperatures get boosted all the way up to maybe as high as 16 celsius well above the average for this part of the world. And the uk all timejanuary Temperature Record stands at 18. 3 celsius, so 16 wouldnt be that far away from that. Although we dont see those dizzy heights across england and wales, it is going to be a mild day nationwide. Now, looking at the weather picture into monday, we keep the mild air across england and wales, but further north, the air� s getting colder across scotland and Northern Ireland. Between the two, we have got a band of rain. It looks like being quite wet across this area, with 20mm to 40mm of rain. Could see a few flakes of snow over the highest hills of the southern uplands. Colder weather pushing back into scotland and Northern Ireland. I say colder, actually, temperatures are coming back closer to average. But across england and wales, still very mild. Temperatures could reach 15 degrees in the warmest spots. Heading into tuesday, that area of low pressure is working away. A ridge of High Pressure follows in for a time from the west, so the cloud will thin and break and many of us will have a day where the weather will improve and get brighter with a bit more in the way of sunshine coming through. Temperatures near average across Northern Areas, still on the mild side for east anglia and southeast england. The rest of the week ahead, often quite wet and windy at times in the north, dry and bright largely in the south. Goodbye for now. Live from washington, this is bbc news. The un agency for Palestinian Refugees is in crisis mode, as Nine Countries pull funding, after the body fired several employees over their alleged involvement in the october 7 hamas attacks on israel. As the world commemorates holocaust remembrance day, we reflect on its lessons and legacy. And, aides are reportedly concerned that president biden� s handling of the israel gaza war, could hurt his chances at re election. Hello, welcome to the programme. We begin with the crisis facing the un agency for Palestinian Refugees. Several countries have paused funding for unwra, the latest to halt aid being germany, its second largest donor. Eight others, including the us and the uk, have suspended funding to the agency known as unrwa. This comes after the agency announced it sacked several Staff Members over allegations they were involved in the october 7th hamas attacks. The head of unrwa, philippe lazzarini, expressed shock at the suspension of funding, saying the decision to withold those funds threatens the lives of people inside gaza who depend on unrwa
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