Yemeni lawmaker sues US military veterans, accusing them of attempting to kill him

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Yemeni lawmaker says in a lawsuit that U.S. military veterans who worked for a private security firm were hired as mercenaries to kill him in 2015 on behalf of the United Arab Emirates as part of a campaign by the U.S. ally that targeted political opponents.

The lawsuit by Anssaf Ali Mayo in federal court in San Diego was unsealed last week, revealing details of the allegations against former executives and employees of Spear Operations Group, a private military contracting firm that incorporated in Delaware in 2015 but was dissolved in 2018. Many of the employees were former U.S. special forces operators.

Mayo — a member of Yemen’s parliament, who is represented by the Center for Justice & Accountability — accuses two military veterans and the founder of Spear Operations of carrying out war crimes, crimes against humanity and an attempted extrajudicial killing. The complaint said the UAE paid the private military contractor $1.5 million per month, plus bonuses for successful killings in Yemen, including Mayo’s.

The scheme described in the lawsuit echoes a 2018 report by BuzzFeed News that U.S. veterans were behind the attempt on his life.

According to the complaint, Spear founder and CEO, Abraham Golan, an Israeli-Hungarian dual citizen, recruited U.S. military veterans, including former Navy SEAL Isaac Gilmore, who later became chief operating officer of Spear, and former U.S. Army Special Forces member Dale Comstock. According to the complaint, the three men have admitted to their roles in the assassination campaign and the attempt on Mayo’s life.

“There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen,” Golan confirmed to Buzzfeed. “I was running it. We did it. It was sanctioned by the UAE within the coalition.”

At the time, according to court documents, Golan and Gilmore lived in the San Diego area and held meetings about their plans there.

Gilmore did not immediately respond to a voicemail message seeking comment. Comstock also did not respond to a message left on his professional website seeking comment. The Associated Press was not able to reach Golan.

The UAE has said it has supported counterterrorism operations in Yemen but has denied targeting political opponents there. The Emirati foreign ministry and the Gulf nation’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the lawsuit.

Mayo does not live in the U.S. but under the Alien Tort Statute, foreigners can sue in U.S. federal court for violations of international law.

Daniel McLaughlin, the legal director for the Center for Justice & Accountability, said the lawsuit highlights the importance of prosecuting the illegal actions of former U.S. military members.

“Our government has a duty to regulate how former members of our military use their training and know-how, and a responsibility to hold them accountable when they break the law,” he said in a statement.

In 2015, the UAE intervened in Yemen’s civil war as part of a regional coalition, backed by the United States. The war was in its early stages after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen.

The contractors have described carrying out the mercenary mission in war-torn Yemen in media interviews, saying their target was Mayo, the local leader of the Islamist group Al-Islah. The UAE considers Al-Islah to be a terrorist organization, though many experts say it is a legitimate political party that has spoken out against the Emirati government’s ambitions in Yemen.

On Dec. 29, 2015, Mayo said Spear planted explosive devices at his office building in the city of Aden in southern Yemen but the lawmaker fled minutes before the explosion. After the attempt on his life, he fled his homeland for Saudi Arabia.

“Spear tried to assassinate me ten years ago. I survived but have been forced to live in exile separated from my family,” Mayo said in a statement.