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Written by: Chris Cappy and Diego Aceituno
Edited by: Michael Michaelides
On the night of December 29th, 2015. The operator’s target is an office building where a suspected terrorist leader is meeting with his allies. At 9:57 PM, the cars reach the address and the operators get out to plant a bomb on the office doors. But just then, shots ring out and a chaotic firefight erupts in the quiet neighborhood. A drone flies overhead recording the entire incident.The team has to improvise quickly before the whole city bears down on them. They just barely manage to secure the bomb on the front door and pile into one of the vehicles. They leave one of their cars behind, packed with explosives. As the team speeds off, the two bombs explode, one after the other, demolishing the building and spreading confusion throughout the city about what just happened.
But the team members weren’t operating under the French or American flag even though some them were still reservists in the Navy SEALs and Maryland National Guard . They were working as contractors for a private security company called Spear Operations Group. And their employer was the United Arab Emirates, with orders coming from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed himself.
The mercenaries had gotten tangled up in in a much larger geopolitical battle between the Houthis, and Yemen’s government , United States and the UAE competing for control of the valuable port city.
Private Military Companies or PMCs aren’t exactly new, there are thousands of them around the world running from small security consulting firms to large corporations. Russia’s Wagner Group and the American company Blackwater are two of the most recognizable examples in recent history. Due to some of their more controversial missions over the past few decades, It’s easy to forget that some PMCs actually provide a legitimate service that is often necessary and seeks to protect good people trying to do good things. NGOs, charities and medical groups hire private security groups for protection for example. But there is always a ying to the yang, a dark side to every coin. After my unit got back home from my deployment a bunch of the guys did contractor work earning 10 times what we made Iraq, it was how a lot of guys I knew paid off their cars , got houses and got their lives set up after paying their dues serving in the military.
sources:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/aramroston/mercenaries-assassination-us-yemen-uae-spear-golan-dahlan
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67945137
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