The conflict in Yemen "just got a lot murkier with this story," international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear. "This is a new mercenary — what the US media usually calls ‘security contractor group' — called the Spear Operations Group."
"This is contract killers. This is a group of US military people… who are contract killing political leaders in another country the US is not officially at war with, [of] a group that the US does not recognize as a terrorist organization."
Spear Operations Group is incorporated in Delaware and was founded by Abraham Golan, a Hungarian-Israeli security contractor. He "served in the French Foreign Legion and set up this business in the US, hiring primarily ex-US special forces," Sleboda said.
"We're talking Navy SEALS, Green Berets — and not only ex[-military personnel] — they specified quite clearly in the group. Standing US National Guard and US Navy Reserve personnel, who are drawing salaries from the US government and who have security clearances, are part of this group's assassinations."
"These groups, these mercenaries groups, these US-based mercenaries, don't operate without the approval of the US State Department. The State Department is quite clear about that: that they provide, supposedly, oversight for what's going on, and it's impossible for this to happen without US government approval," Sleboda told Loud & Clear hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker.
The mercenaries, who were paid $25,000 a month per person to operate in Yemen, targeted political leaders and religious clerics, BuzzFeed reported.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis was an advisor to the UAE prior to his ascendency to becoming head of the Pentagon. Sleboda said that the Pentagon and the State Department likely know about the mercenaries because many of them are members of the military.