Spear Operations Group is a

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacen ...

-based

private military company A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military ...

that was hired by the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

to carry out operations in Yemen to support the Emirati intervention in the

Yemeni Civil War Yemeni Civil War may refer to several historical events which have taken place in Yemen: * Alwaziri coup, February – March 1948 *Yemeni–Adenese clan violence, 1956–60 * North Yemen Civil War, 1962–70 * Aden Emergency, 1963–67 * North Yem ...

. It was founded by Abraham Golan, a Hungarian-Israeli security contractor. The company was approached by a representative of the United Arab Emirates government to carry out assassinations in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...

as part of the Yemeni Civil War (2015–present), which may be a violation of the

War Crimes Act of 1996 The War Crimes Act of 1996 is a law that defines a war crime to include a " grave breach of the Geneva Conventions", specifically noting that "grave breach" should have the meaning defined in any convention (related to the laws of war) to whic ...

. In 2015, the company embedded a team of

US special forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army. The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal mis ...

veterans and former members of the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army ...

within the

Emirati military The United Arab Emirates Armed Forces ( ar, القوات المسلحة لدولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, Al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥa li-Dawlat al-ʾImārāt al-ʿArabīyyah al-Muttaḥidah) are the armed forces of the Unit ...

, which supplied the team with weapons, uniforms, Emirati military ranks, and dog tags. By 2016, Spear Operations Group had replaced the Legionnaires with Americans. On 29 December 2015, Spear Operations Group began its operations in Yemen with a failed assassination attempt on Anssaf Ali Mayo, the local leader of Islamist political party

Al-Islah Islah or Al-Islah is an Arabic word usually translated as "reform", in the sense of "to improve, to better, to correct something and removing vice or to put something into a better position." Islah may also refer to: People *Islah Jad (born 1951), ...

. Though the first operation failed, the team stayed on in Yemen for several more months and claimed credit for a number of other high-profile assassinations. Their targets included other members of al-Islah, nonviolent clerics, and some "out and out terrorists." After Spear Operations Group's assassinations were made public by an October 2018 ''

BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, i ...

'' report, US Senators

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a p ...

and

Bob Menendez Robert Menendez (; born January 1, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2006. Gale Biography In Context. A member of the Democratic Party, he was fir ...

wrote letters to the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nat ...

demanding answers about Spear Operations Group, focusing on whether the federal government knew about their involvement in the war in Yemen. Warren also sent a letter to the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

calling for an investigation into the group.

References

External links

Official website
Yemeni Civil War (2014–present) Private military contractors Companies based in Delaware {{delaware-stub