US Defence Department Implicates UAE on Libyan Conflict US Defence Department Implicates UAE on Libyan Conflict Recently, the US Defence Department’s Inspector General for Counterterrorism Operations in Africa issued a report which concludes that the UAE helped finance the Russian mercenaries operating in Libya under the auspices of the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group. For a political risk consultancy, Menas Associates, the US Department of State has characterised Wagner as a ‘’surrogate for the Russian ministry of defence’’. The report is the first official public assessment of an ar...