“The Invisible Murderer”.. journalist report accuses UAE of leading assassinations wave in Aden in the last 3 years

Sam organization for Rights and Freedoms said it had documented 103 murders in the city of Aden between 2015 and 2018.

In a report published by the Organization and titled  “The Invisible Murderer”, the assassinations targeted security men, mosque preachers and politicians.

According to the report, the operations began 43 days after the liberation of the city of Aden from the Huthi militia and the control of the UAE forces on the city.

Sam said her report relied on statistical methodology based on monitoring and documenting the assassinations during the report period

The report monitored 103 assassination operations in the province of Aden. The organization followed them through the media and by communicating with the families of the victims and those concerned with human rights in order to solve the mystery of this crime, which  pushed many to search for a safe place instead of Aden.

According to the report, instead of the relative stability that the city was supposed to witness after the liberation, the opposite happened. The security situation deteriorated and the city of Aden was subjected to organized and systematic assassinations targeting specific military and security leaders as well as civilians.

A number of questions were raised about the method of carrying out the assassinations and the suspicious silence of the security services and the forces controlling Aden to clarify their circumstances or even issuing a statement clarifying what is going on in Aden and the beneficiary of these targeted assassinations, which included the former governor of Aden, Major General Jaafar Mohamed Saad on 6 December 2015 “.

According to Sam, the largest number of victims is security officers, who numbered 42, spread over criminal investigation, the political security apparatus, the security of Aden airport, followed by the preachers and imams, and the victims (23), including 12 imam and preachers belonging to the Salafist Current, and (4) belonging to The Islah party and one preacher belonged to the Islamist-oriented Al-Nahdha movement. The military came fourth with eight people, followed by leaders and members of the resistance, with seven people, in addition to a variety of 14 people, including activists, athletes, professors, judges, and prosecutors.

Sam confirmed in her report that the wave of assassinations began immediately after the war, and then continued, and data indicates that (18) an assassination occurred in January 2016, only one month after the appointment of the Aydaroos Al-Zubaidi as a Governor of the province of Aden and Major General Shallal Shaye’a as police director.

The high frequency of the assassination this month coincided with a worsening of the political situation between the UAE and President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was resident in Aden, before leaving on February 13, the organization said, adding that assassinations in this period targeted Related to the counter-terrorism dossier, whether security officers or judges.

The overall analysis of the assassinations from 2015 to 2018 shows that 2016 was the bloodiest year in which 45 assassinations and up to 48% of the victims were recorded and documented, and most of the victims of these operations were security and military leaders, the year after the restoration Al-Houthi militia, followed by the year 2018, reached a number of (24) assassinations, a year that witnessed a major armed tension between the presidential guard brigades of President Hadi and the security Belt forces funded by the United Arab Emirates, a member of the coalition, reached the limit of the armed confrontation in January 2018, and ended in favor of the security forces, and their control over the city of Aden, most of the target groups of the assassination this year of the military and preachers, by a percentage (26%).

The year 2015 has recorded 13 murders, up to 14%. Finally, 2017, with 11 operations and up to 12%. According to the report, the assassinations were carried out at close intervals and in the same ways, without any security precautions, confirming that the perpetrators of the assassination are moving More reassuring, possessing complete information about the victim, and monitoring the report targeting port security officers, especially Aden airport, and its port, which are the gateway to the link between Yemen and the outside world, and are working to check the movement of passengers to and from Yemen, the organization has recorded eight incidents of assassination.

Sam said in her report that by analyzing the facts of the assassinations, it was found that the assassination by shooting the victim was the most frequently used method by the actor carrying out assassinations in Aden, the first operation was carried out on 30 August 2015, as the first operation with an IED was on July 30 the following year, i.e. 11 months later.

The element of success seems to be an important factor in favoring shooting on IEDs in these groups, where IEDs have only been successful in (5) assassinations versus (14) unsuccessful attempts, while 79 were successfully shot in return for only 15 failures. This explains that the use of IEDs is more complex, It requires techniques beyond shooting training.

At the same time, this raises question of why perpetrators prefer to use bullets, although improvised explosive devices are safer for the assassination team, with less chance of being arrested which may leads to identify their supporters.

Sam confirmed that reliance on the “bullet” approach, despite the serious probabilities of the perpetrators’ exposure, may indicates the side who is responsible for the assassinations, as it will be the side who does not fear the exposure of its killers, because he has the full control of the city.

In addition, this side has to be the responsible for their detention and imprisonment in the event of their exposure or arresting, as well as being the responsible for investigating  and subsequent legal procedures. Therefore, this side has to be very safe from accountability in order to carry out operations smoothly and easily, relying on the simplest tools.

“These security services, the militias and the funding countries will continue to be charged until the hidden truth is revealed, the perpetrators are brought to justice, and the victims and their families find justice” Sam said in her report.