Assignment: American mercenaries - killing in Yemen

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While recent attention has focused on the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen, BBC correspondent Nawal Al-Maghafi investigates a different, hidden aspect of the country’s long civil war. The conflict in Yemen began in 2014. It has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In 2015, a coalition formed by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen. Its stated aim was to return the elected government to power, and to fight terrorism. However, Nawal Al-Maghafi , from BBC Arabic Investigations has found evidence that the UAE has been funding a method of covert warfare in southern Yemen – assassinating those who have spoken out against the UAE’s operations in the country. Assassinations were initially carried out by a band of former American Special Forces operatives turned mercenaries, who were paid by the UAE. These extra-judicial killings, conducted in the name of counterterrorism, continue to this day. The UAE denies the allegations.

Transcript

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0:00.0	World of Secrets, Season 2, investigates allegations surrounding one of the most powerful religious figures of the 21st century, TB Joshua.
0:10.0	Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.
0:15.0	Welcome to the documentary podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:19.0	I'm No one L' Makaffi.
0:21.0	In recent days, the world has been hearing a lot about the Hothi
0:25.2	rebel movement in Yemen but for this episode of assignment I've been investigating a
0:30.8	different hidden aspect of the country's long civil war and that's the story of the American mercenaries who in 2015 were hired to kill in Yemen.
0:46.0	I'm going to fight the global war on terror. I'm going after bad people, evil people.
0:49.0	When I get a chance to stamp out evil in this world,
0:52.0	I love that. Sorry, I love hunting down bad guys and
0:56.6	ending them.
0:58.6	Driving from the base down into a city was actually incredibly beautiful.
1:05.0	There's this weird mix of excitement, fear, and also an odd serenity.
1:10.0	We wanted to make a statement, hence the choice to use a detonator in a bomb.
1:17.0	I was actually surprised how dark it was.
1:19.0	There were no lights, roads were very tight and congested.
1:23.0	You had people sitting on the street drinking chai.
1:26.0	You had Al-Qaeda on every street corner.
1:30.0	As soon as the vehicle stops, the door is open and it's showtime.
1:34.4	We already started taking fire.
1:37.4	There's people running.
1:38.8	You can see the bullets bouncing off of everything.
	...

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