#Yemeni Armed Forces

[workersolidarity]

🇾🇪⚔️🇺🇸🇬🇧 🚨

MASSIVE PROTESTS IN YEMEN IN DEFIANCE OF U.S.-LED COALITION STRIKES

📹 Video showing the massive rallies and protests being held in Sa'da, Yemen, after U.S.-led coalition forces launched several drone and missile strikes targeting "military" sites belonging to the Armed Forces of Yemen.

Protests have spread throughout the country in defiance of the U.S. coalition and in solidarity with Palestinians under bombardment and siege in the Gaza Strip.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[vyorei]

Live coverage of the 3rd of December 2023 has now begun.

Here is an amalgamation of news from the last hour, oldest at the top and latest at the bottom.

Here is the article in image 2:

Here is the article in image 4:

[abu-obe1da]

Yemeni Armed Forces: Images of scenes from the operation targeting the oil tanker "CHIOS Lion" that was targeted by the Yemeni Armed Forces yesterday in the Red Sea with a drone boat due to its owning company violating the decision to prohibit entry to the ports of occupied Palestine.

Source: Resistance News Network

[head-post]

Houthis issue email alert to shipping fleets

An executive of a Greek shipping company was warned in the spring that one of the company’s vessels travelling in the Red Sea was in danger of being attacked by Yemeni Houthi militants.

The Greek-operated vessel violated a transit ban imposed by the Houthi by entering an Israeli port and would be “directly attacked by Yemeni armed forces in any area they deem appropriate,” the message said, written in English and reviewed by Reuters. The email, signed by the Yemen-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Centre (HOCC), a body set up in February to liaise between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators, said:

“You bear the responsibility and consequences of including the vessel in the ban list.”

The Houthis have carried out about 100 attacks on ships travelling through the Red Sea since November, acting in solidarity with Palestinians involved in Israel’s long-running war on Gaza. They have sunk two ships, hijacked another and killed at least four sailors.

The email, received in late May, warned of “sanctions” against the company’s entire fleet if a ship continued to “violate the ban criteria and enter the ports of the usurping Israeli entity.”

The executive and the company declined to give their names for security reasons.

Dozen threatening emails since May

The warning was the first of more than a dozen threatening emails sent to at least six Greek shipping companies since May amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, according to six industry sources with direct knowledge of the emails and two with indirect knowledge.

The email campaign, previously unreported, indicates that Houthi rebels are spreading their net wider and targeting Greek merchant ships with little or no ties to Israel.

It is also the first time in recent months that entire fleets have been threatened, increasing the risk to those vessels still trying to cross the Red Sea.

“Your ships breached the decision of Yemen Armed Forces,” read a separate email sent in June from a Yemeni government web domain to the first company weeks later and to another Greek shipping company, which also declined to be named. “Therefore, punishments will be imposed on all vessels of your company … Best Regards, Yemen Navy.”

Ships owned by Greece, which represents one of the largest navies in the world, accounted for nearly 30 per cent of attacks carried out by Houthi forces through early September, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, which did not specify whether the ships were linked to Israel.

In August, Houthi militias, part of Iran’s Axis of Resistance alliance of anti-Israeli militia militias, attacked the tanker Sounion, after which it burned for weeks before it was towed to a safer area.

The Houthi email campaign began in February with messages sent to shipowners, insurance companies and the main seafarers’ union HOCC.

The first emails, two of which came to the attention of Reuters, warned the industry that the Houthis had imposed a travel ban on some vessels in the Red Sea, although they did not warn companies of the impending attack.

Decision to end co-operation with Israel

Messages sent after May were more threatening. At least two Greek shipping companies that received email threats have decided to stop such voyages through the Red Sea, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters, declining to name the companies for security reasons.

An executive at a third shipping company, which also received the email, said they had decided to stop co-operating with Israel to be able to continue using the route through the Red Sea. Stephen Cotton, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the leading union organisation for seafarers, which received an email from HOCC in February, said:

“If safe transit through the Red Sea cannot be guaranteed, companies have a duty to act – even if that means delaying their delivery windows. The lives of the seafarers depend on it.”

The email campaign has heightened anxiety among shipping companies. The cost of insurance for Western shipowners has already jumped because of the Houthi attacks, and some insurers have suspended coverage altogether, sources told Reuters.

Greece’s Conbulk Shipmanagement Corporation stopped Red Sea voyages after its MV Groton vessel was attacked twice in August.

Attempts to fight against the Houthis

In response to Houthis attacks on merchant ships, back in December, the US launched Operation Prosperity Guardian. To ensure the safety of shipping, a 20-nation naval force was formed in the Red Sea, sending its ships to the southern part of the sea and launching multiple strikes against a number of Houthi military installations, including radars, air defence systems, weapons depots and missile launchers.

The Red Sea area, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, is important to the world economy. Nearly 15 per cent of world maritime trade passes through it, including 8 per cent of grain trade, 12 per cent of oil trade and 8 per cent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade.

As early as last December, the world’s largest shipping companies, primarily container shipping companies, announced their decision to divert ships around Africa, bypassing the Red Sea. Among them are Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Danish Maersk, German Hapag-Lloyd, French CMA CGM and a number of others.

Oil cargo carriers were also not left behind. British BP refused to transport through the Red Sea, then Norwegian Equinor joined it, and in January deliveries through the Red Sea were suspended by Anglo-Dutch Shell. In January, QatarEnergy, one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, also stopped shipping LNG tankers to Europe via the Red Sea.

Read more HERE

[thisisabernieblog]

Iran hasn't killed over a conservatively 41,000 fucking people #KillerKamala

Fuck off, lol

[fiercynn]

okay, if you have ever made or reblogged a “hold your nose and vote for biden” post, this is for you.

here’s the fucking thing about these kinds of posts. i've been seeing them since i first returned to tumblr in, I think, late 2022? they've certainly increased in frequency since october 7, but they were there before too, ready to counter any kind of opposition to biden that has cropped up. many of them are not just trying to educate people about what positive things biden has done, which, like, at least I can understand the motivation behind those ones? but so many of them are directly in response to people criticizing biden, and their only real point is “sure you’re upset at this thing biden did, but have you considered the election?” starting YEARS before the next presidential election, mind you.

and october 7 only made that clearer. i don’t think it had been a week before i saw these posts cropping up. can you not see how fucking ghoulish that is? to look at the rightful pain and anger of those whose relatives and communities are being slaughtered with active american support, to respond to one of the few pieces of agency most americans have in influencing what their governments do – their vote – by saying “yes but trump would be worse.” as if the primary people you’re lecturing – palestinians, muslims, arabs, black people, indigenous people, disabled people, other marginalized people – don’t remember exactly how bad it was under trump!

and even if you think not voting is an empty gesture – something i, who studied political science at a mainstream american lib college, who has worked as a field organizer on a previous democratic presidential campaign and for several policy campaigns, who currently works in public policy in america, used to believe, but have absolutely changed my mind on – what is in no way an empty gesture is saying publicly that you will not vote for someone. the arguments people usually have about why simply not voting is bad are that you can’t tell why someone is not voting, so it is as likely to be apathy or disenfranchisement as it is a political statement. but saying publicly that you will not vote for someone, and why you will not vote for them, absolutely is a political statement, and potentially a powerful one! but you choose to negate and/or ignore that by trotting out the “lesser of two evils” bullshit.

and then there’s the whole “yes but people will DIE under trump”. PEOPLE ARE DYING NOW. even if you’re fucking racist and have decided that palestinian lives don’t count, have you forgotten biden’s ongoing covid minimalism and dismantling of the CDC’s covid research and prevention infrastructure? have you forgotten his increase in spending for law enforcement scant years after the murder of george floyd and his administration's surveillance of protesters, including cop city protesters? have you forgotten his recent ramp-up in deportations of undocumented immigrants, including the active continuation of many trump-era policies?

maybe you have forgotten all those things and do purport to care about palestinians, but you just think that biden is doing his best to influence netanyahu and is getting nowhere! but then you must have forgotten all of the things that biden and his administration themselves have done to further this fucking genocide, including:

continuing to send arms to israel

putting together a military task force within days of yemen’s red sea blockade and attacking yemeni ships

bombing yemen

bombing syria

bombing iraq

vetoing three ceasefire resolutions at the united nations

testifying to defend israel and its genocide and occupation at the international court of justice

refusing to rescue palestinian-americans stuck in gaza

halting funding to the united nations relief and works agency for palestinian refugees (UNRWA) based on israeli claims that 12 of UNRWA’s over 30,000 staff were hamas agents, even though u.s. intelligence has not been able to independently verify this

lying that he’s personally seen photos of babies beheaded by hamas when he hadn’t because they didn’t exist (and even when his own staff cautioned him that reports of beheaded babies may not be credible)

questioning the number of palestinian deaths reported by the gaza ministry of health (when even israel has not questioned them, since they are in fact proud of those numbers)

perpetuating lies about hamas having committed the attack on al-aqsa hospital

questioning united nations reports of adults and children raped by israeli soldiers while claiming to have proof (that no one else has seen) of hamas doing the same

honestly so many more things that i can’t remember them all but others feel free to add

or maybe you haven’t forgotten any of that, and think that you’re still justified in lecturing people about why they should vote for biden, because you genuinely believe trump would still be worse. if that is the case, you have still failed to see that by saying you will vote for biden no matter what, you are part of the problem of biden continuing to act like this. because biden is counting on fear of trump to win him this next election no matter what else he does. despite his appalling polling numbers, despite the knowledge that he is losing the palestinian-american vote, the arab-american vote, the muslim-american vote, the black american vote, the youth vote – despite all of that, he is secure in the idea that he will still win because he is better than trump. can you not see how that allows him to act without impunity? how it becomes increasingly impossible for his base to influence what he’s doing if he thinks that they will be with him no matter what? this is how you make yourself complicit to biden’s actions, by not affording anyone even the slightest power to hold him accountable for anything.

and in most cases, the “hold your nose and vote for biden” thing is the response of people who aren’t even being instructed by others not to vote for biden. it is their response to people saying they themselves are choosing not to vote for biden. fucking ghoulish.

[guerillas-of-history]

For the 21st week in a row, the Yemeni masses gathered in all governorates for their million-man march in support of Palestine, this week under the title "You Are Not Alone...Steadfast With Gaza."

Protestors held up banners of Aaron Bushnell, the 25-year-old American soldier that self-immolated in front of the zionist embassy in Washington DC in support of Gaza.

The march organizers again reaffirmed the continuation of demonstrations and marches in support of Palestine, as well as the continuation of military mobilization and training, which has so far trained 237,000 new Yemeni soldiers.

They condemned the disgraceful stance and collusion of Arab regimes with the zionist entity, while praising the operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces, asserting that they will not stop until the aggression on Gaza ceases and the siege is lifted.

Finally, they called for the continued boycott of American and zionist products.

[i-am-aprl]

The day after the US and UK launched deadly airstrikes across Yemen, killing five, millions rallied across the country to affirm their support for Palestine and readiness for major war.

"This brutal aggression will not sway Yemen from its supportive stance for the plight of the Palestinian people," the Yemeni Armed Forces declared.

[sayruq]

One of the best things about the Ansar Allah enforced naval blockade, besides the economic harm being done to Israel, the rest of the world being forced to isolate Israel, America's might crumbling at sea, and other countries like Malaysia being inspired to act, is that it forces people to keep talking about Palestine.

In the first month of the genocide there was so much pro Palestine fervor, more than I had ever seen before. Many zionists were consoling themselves by outright stating that the rest of the world would get tired of seeing the conflict and move on, allowing Israel to act with impunity. And unfortunately all signs were pointing to that. Pro Palestine content was starting to get suppressed on social media. The protests got smaller and smaller.

Then Yemen started seizing and attacking Israel linked ships because Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians. Every single statement put out by the Ansar Allah group mentions the genocide, makes sure that everyone knew that's why they were attacking those specific ships. Multiple large shipping companies had to change their routes. Israeli port city of Eliat is practically a ghost town now. America has tried and failed to form a coalition that can take on the Yemenis (for the second time in a decade, the first time being the Saudi-led coalition that has destroyed large parts of Yemen and caused the deaths of over 300,000 civilians).

Suddenly, the whole world was affected by the genocide. It's impossible to ignore it which means the protests, boycotts, disruptions at companies that are arming Israel, etc are still on going. People are still talking about Palestine on social media. More importantly than all of that is countries being forced by their citizens or their own interests to call for a ceasefire. Would Canada or the UK call for a ceasefire if their citizens and the world at large had stopped paying attention to Gaza? Definitely not.

Every UN resolution ends on the conflict the same way - almost every country in the world calls for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza as well as an end to the violence, except the US and Israel. Rather than isolating Palestine, the two countries are isolating themselves and losing a great deal of soft power in the process. I doubt this would have happened this quickly without the naval blockade.

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱⚔️🇾🇪 🚀🚀🚀🏢💥🔥 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES ATTACK YEMEN'S PORT CITY OF HEDEIDAH

📹 Fires burn in the port city of Hodeidah in western Yemen after the Israeli occupation army launched a series of airstrikes on the city, resulting in a raging conflagration and a number of casualties.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched an airstrike on Saturday, targeting Yemen's western port city of Hodeidah on the Red Sea, triggering a large conflagration in an oil refinery and resulting in an unknown number of casualties.

The strikes were a response to a drone strike on Friday launched by the Yemeni Armed Forces that collided with an apartment building in Tel Aviv, killing one Israeli citizen and wounding at least 10 others.

Reporting and video from the strikes show the port of Hodeidah burning in a massive conflagration after the reported strike, which Hebrew media Channel-12 cited Al-Mayadeen News as stating the strike had been conducted by an Israeli F-35 fighter jet, while an American official confirmed the claim in an interview with the Israeli media outlet "Walla".

Yemeni media reporting on the attack confirmed the Israeli occupation's raids targeted an oil refinery in the port of Hodeidah, resulting in a large fire.

#source1

#source2

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[sylvia-on-the-run]

The Yemeni ballistic response deep in the zionist entity strengthens the deterrence equation and further exposes the fragility of the zionist entity.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) salutes with all pride and honor, the brave Yemeni people and their valiant Armed Forces, who once again demonstrated their ability to penetrate deep into the zionist entity and bypass American and Western defenses by launching a ballistic missile that struck the capital of the fabricated entity. This new qualitative operation has proven Yemen's capability to enhance the deterrence equation against the occupation and deliver a powerful response to the occupation’s crime of bombing Al-Hodeidah port and the genocide against our Palestinian people.

This operation has left the zionist enemy in a state of shock and confusion, once again revealing the fragility of its defense system, which has long relied on support from the United States and its allies.

This missile strike comes as part of the continued Yemeni front of support and the strikes from the Axis of Resistance in response to the zionist genocide war against our people and in support of the resistance. The Yemeni armed forces have pledged to impose a naval blockade on the occupation and strike anyone who challenges this blockade.

Through this operation, the Yemeni forces have sent a strong message to the zionist occupation, stating that any aggression against Yemen or Gaza will not go unpunished, and the occupation’s losses will be severe at all levels and in the heart of the entity.

This qualitative operation also affirms that the American-zionist aggression on Yemen has failed to achieve its goals of breaking Yemen’s will or affecting its operations in support of Gaza.

The zionist reliance on American and Western defense systems, or the crimes of their allies against Yemen, has failed to protect the zionist entity. The Yemeni ballistic message today is clear and unequivocal: "Stop the aggression on Gaza immediately, or Yemen's responses will continue, intensify, and penetrate deeper into the zionist entity. There will be no red lines in defending the causes of the nation, foremost among them the cause of Palestine and its valiant resistance."

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Central Media Department Mid-September 2024

[opencommunion]

"The Armed Forces of Yemen’s Sanaa government, aligned with the Ansarallah resistance movement, announced on 14 July an operation against an Israeli ship in the Gulf of Aden and an attack targeting Israel’s southern port city of Eilat, known in Arabic as Umm al-Rashrash. 

Sanaa’s forces said the operations were a 'response to the Al-Mawasi massacre in Khan Yunis, which was committed by the Israeli enemy [on Saturday].' At least 90 Palestinian civilians were killed in the massacre in southern Gaza. 

... Sanaa also confirmed 'full readiness to carry out joint military operations with any Arab or Islamic party that supports the oppressed Palestinian people.' The Yemeni army has carried out several joint operations with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) recently. The Yemeni statement came after renewed US–UK airstrikes on Yemen on 14 July. 

... Washington and London have recently increased their illegal attacks on Yemen, as Sanaa’s forces remain undeterred and continue their blockade on Israeli shipping. US and UK warplanes launched several airstrikes on Hodeidah International Airport in western Yemen on 12 July. ... 57 people have been killed and 87 wounded in 570 airstrikes carried out by the US and UK against Yemen since the start of the western campaign.

The Yemeni army has vowed not to stop its operations until the war in Gaza comes to an end. The western campaign has done nothing to deter the Yemenis. US and EU maritime task forces have failed to progress in preventing attacks on ships, which have strained both the Israeli economy and international shipping as a whole.

Commander Benjamin Orloff, a Navy pilot who recently returned home from deployment, described the experience of intercepting Yemeni missiles and drones as 'traumatizing' in an interview on 13 July. Late last month, a US navy commander said the threat posed by Yemen’s forces in the Red Sea and elsewhere poses a threat unseen by Washington since the Second World War."

[nando161mando]

🚨🇾🇪 BREAKING: The Yemeni Armed Forces announce, in cooperation with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the targeting of a vital target at the Port of Asdod (north of #Gaza), as well as the targeting of an important target in the Port of Haifa.

Additionally, the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a qualitative operation targeting the ship "TUTOR" in the Red Sea, due to its parent company's violation of the ban on the ports of occupied Palestine.

[head-post]

Houthis to allow rescuers to save Sounion tanker burning in Red Sea

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam said the group would allow tugs and rescue vessels to reach a damaged Sounion crude oil tanker in the Red Sea, according to Reuters.

Last week, the Houthis attacked a Greek-flagged vessel. The Sounion tanker carried 150,000 tonnes, or 1 million barrels, of crude oil and posed an environmental hazard, shipping officials claimed. Any spill could be one of the largest in history, according to Iran’s mission to the United Nations.

Several countries have reached out to ask Ansarullah [the Houthis], requesting a temporary truce for the entry of tugboats and rescue ships into the incident area. In consideration of humanitarian and environmental concerns, Ansarullah has consented to this request.

Abdulsalam reported on Wednesday that there was no temporary truce, but the group agreed to allow the towing of the Sounion tanker only after several international parties contacted the Houthis.

The Sounion was hit by several shells last week off the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. The group confirmed that it had carried out the attack. Since November, the Houthis have sunk two ships, hijacked another and killed at least three sailors in more than 70 attacks.

On Tuesday, before the statement by the Houthis, the Pentagon claimed that a third party had tried to send two tugs to help rescue the Sounion, but the Houthis threatened to target them. However, Iran’s mission to the UN said that “the failure to provide aid and prevent an oil spill in the Red Sea stems from the negligence of certain countries, rather than concerns over the possibility of being targeted.”

Read more HERE

[determinate-negation]

“As Houthis vow to fight on, U.S. prepares for sustained campaign

[…] Officials say they don’t expect that the operation will stretch on for years like previous U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria. At the same time they acknowledge they can identify no end date or provide an estimate for when the Yemenis’ military capability will be adequately diminished. As part of the effort, U.S. naval forces also are working to intercept weapons shipments from Iran.

[…] Officials said that ideology, rather than economics, was a chief driver of Biden's decision to mount the current campaign.

While the attacks have so far taken a greater toll on Europe than the United States, which relies on Pacific trade routes more than those in the Middle East, the Houthi campaign is already beginning to reshape the global shipping map. Some firms have chosen to reroute ships around the Cape of Good Hope off southern Africa, while major oil companies including BP and Shell suspended shipments through the area.

The officials said Biden believed the United States had to act as what they described as the world's "indispensable nation," with a powerful military and an ability to organize diverse nations behind a single cause. Nations including Canada, Bahrain, Germany and Japan jointly issued a statement on Jan. 3 decrying the Houthi actions.

[…] While U.S. lawmakers have been broadly supportive of the strikes in Yemen, they said the administration has yet to outline a clear strategy or endgame, and suggested the strikes have not eliminated concerns about an escalating Middle East conflict. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters following a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in recent days that the administration's plan for addressing the threat appeared to be "evolving."

Legislators also voiced fears the operation could become costly and prolonged. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted that some of the missiles employed to date could cost $2 million apiece. "So you've got this issue that will be emerging of how long can we continue to fire expensive missiles," he said.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[BBC is UK State Media]

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has funded politically-motivated assassinations in Yemen, a BBC investigation has found, exacerbating a conflict involving the Yemeni government and warring factions which has recently returned to the international spotlight following attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Counter-terrorism training provided by American mercenaries to Emirati officers in Yemen has been used to train locals who can work under a lower profile - sparking a major uptick in political assassinations, a whistleblower told BBC Arabic Investigations.

The BBC has also found that despite the American mercenaries' stated aim to eliminate the jihadist groups al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) in southern Yemen, in fact the UAE has gone on to recruit former al-Qaeda members for a security force it has created on the ground in Yemen to fight the Houthi rebel movement and other armed factions.

The UAE government has denied the allegations in our investigation - that it had assassinated those without links to terrorism - saying they were "false and without merit".

These are largely between the two parts of the "real" "legitimate" "internationally recognized" coalition govt of Yemen you've been scolded so much about over the last month btw [22 Jan 24]

Continued after the cut

The killing spree in Yemen - more than 100 assassinations in a three-year period - is just one element of an ongoing bitter internecine conflict pitting several international powers against each other in the Middle East's poorest country.[...]

In 2015, the US and the UK supported a coalition of mostly Arab states led by Saudi Arabia - with the UAE as a key partner - to fight back. The coalition invaded Yemen with the aim of reinstating the exiled Yemeni government and fighting terrorism. The UAE was given charge of security in the south, and became the US's key ally on counter-terrorism in the region - al-Qaeda had long been a presence in the south and was now gaining territory.[...]

Under international law, any killing of civilians without due process would be counted as extra-judicial.

The majority of those assassinated were members of Islah - the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It [...] has never been classified by the US as a terror organisation, but is banned in several Arab countries - including the UAE where its political activism and support for elections is seen by the country's royal family as a threat to their rule.

Leaked drone footage of the first assassination mission gave me a starting point from which to investigate these mysterious killings. It was dated December 2015 and was traced to members of a private US security company called Spear Operations Group.[...]

Isaac Gilmore, a former US Navy Seal who later became chief operating officer of Spear, was one of several Americans who say they were hired to carry out assassinations in Yemen by the UAE.

He refused to talk about anyone who was on the "kill list" provided to Spear by the UAE - other than the target of their first mission: Ansaf Mayo, a Yemeni MP who is the leader of Islah in the southern port city of Aden, the government's temporary capital since 2015.[...]

Mr Gilmore, and another Spear employee in Yemen at the time - Dale Comstock - told me that the mission they conducted ended in 2016. But the assassinations in southern Yemen continued. In fact they became more frequent, according to investigators from the human rights group Reprieve.

They investigated 160 killings carried out in Yemen between 2015 and 2018. They said the majority happened from 2016 and only 23 of the 160 people killed had links to terrorism. All the killings had been carried out using the same tactics that Spear had employed - the detonation of an improvised explosive device (IED) as a distraction, followed by a targeted shooting. The most recent political assassination in Yemen, according to Yemeni human rights lawyer Huda al-Sarari, happened just last month - of an imam killed in Lahj by the same method.[...]

Mr Gilmore, Mr Comstock, and two other mercenaries from Spear who asked not to be named, said that Spear had been involved in training Emirati officers in the UAE military base in Aden. A journalist who asked to remain anonymous also told us he had seen footage of such training.

As the mercenaries' profile had made them conspicuous in Aden and vulnerable to exposure, their brief had been changed to training Emirati officers, "who in turn trained local Yemenis to do the targeting", the Yemeni military officer told me.

Through the course of the investigation, we also spoke to more than a dozen other Yemeni sources who said this had been the case. They included two men who said they had carried out assassinations which were not terror-related, after being trained to do so by Emirati soldiers - and one man who said he had been offered release from a UAE prison in exchange for the assassination of a senior Yemeni political figure, a mission he did not accept.

Getting Yemenis to conduct the assassinations meant it was harder for the killings to be traced back to the UAE.

By 2017, the UAE had helped build a paramilitary force, part of the Emirati-funded Southern Transitional Council (STC), a security organisation that runs a network of armed groups across southern Yemen.

The force operated in southern Yemen independently of the Yemeni government, and would only take orders from the UAE. The fighters were not just trained to fight on active front lines. One particular unit, the elite Counter Terrorism Unit, was trained to conduct assassinations, our whistleblower told us.

The whistleblower sent a document with 11 names of former al-Qaeda members now working in the STC, some of whose identities we were able to verify ourselves.

During our investigation we also came across the name Nasser al-Shiba. Once a high-ranking al-Qaeda operative, he was jailed for terrorism but later released. A Yemeni government minister we spoke to told us al-Shiba was a known suspect in the attack on the US warship USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors in October 2000. Multiple sources told us that he is now the commander of one of the STC military units. Lawyer Huda al-Sarari has been investigating human rights abuses committed by these UAE-backed forces on the ground. As a result of her work, she would frequently receive death threats. But it was her 18-year-old son Mohsen who paid the ultimate price.

He was shot in the chest in March 2019 while on a trip to a local petrol station, and died a month later.[...]

A subsequent investigation by Aden's public prosecutor found that Mohsen was killed by a member of the UAE-backed Counter Terrorism Unit, but the authorities have never pursued a prosecution.

Members of the prosecutor's office - who we cannot name for safety reasons - told us that the widespread assassinations have created a climate of fear that means even they are too afraid to pursue justice in cases involving forces backed by the UAE.

Reprieve has received a leaked UAE document that shows Spear was still being paid in 2020, though it is not clear in what capacity.