WASHINGTON — The United Arab Emirates has secretly dispatched hundreds of Colombian mercenaries to Yemen
to fight in that country’s raging conflict, adding a volatile new
element in a complex proxy war that has drawn in the United States and Iran.
It
is the first combat deployment for a foreign army that the Emirates has
quietly built in the desert over the past five years, according to
several people currently or formerly involved with the project. The
program was once managed by a private company connected to Erik Prince,
the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, but the people involved in the
effort said that his role ended several years ago and that it has since
been run by the Emirati military.
The arrival in Yemen
of 450 Latin American troops — among them are also Panamanian,
Salvadoran and Chilean soldiers — adds to the chaotic stew of government
armies, armed tribes, terrorist networks and Yemeni militias currently
at war in the country. Earlier this year, a coalition of countries led
by Saudi Arabia, including the United States, began a military campaign
in Yemen against Houthi rebels who have pushed the Yemeni government out
of the capital, Sana.
It
is also a glimpse into the future of war. Wealthy Arab nations,
particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, have in recent years
embraced a more aggressive military strategy throughout the Middle East,
trying to rein in the chaos unleashed by the Arab revolutions that
began in late 2010. But these countries wade into the new conflicts —
whether in Yemen, Syria or Libya — with militaries that are unused to
sustained warfare and populations with generally little interest in
military service.
“Mercenaries
are an attractive option for rich countries who wish to wage war yet
whose citizens may not want to fight,” said Sean McFate, a senior fellow
at the Atlantic Council and author of “The Modern Mercenary.”
“The
private military industry is global now,” said Mr. McFate, adding that
the United States essentially “legitimized” the industry with its heavy
reliance on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan over more than a decade
of war. “Latin American mercenaries are a sign of what’s to come,” he
said.
The
Colombian troops now in Yemen, handpicked from a brigade of some 1,800
Latin American soldiers training at an Emirati military base, were woken
up in the middle of the night for their deployment to Yemen last month.
They were ushered out of their barracks as their bunkmates continued
sleeping, and were later issued dog tags and ranks in the Emirati
military. Those left behind are now being trained to use grenade
launchers and armored vehicles that Emirati troops are currently using
in Yemen.
Emirati
officials have made a point of recruiting Colombian troops over other
Latin American soldiers because they consider the Colombians more battle
tested in guerrilla warfare, having spent decades battling gunmen of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the jungles of Colombia.
The
exact mission of the Colombians in Yemen is unclear, and one person
involved in the project said it could be weeks before they saw regular
combat. They join hundreds of Sudanese soldiers whom Saudi Arabia has
recruited to fight there as part of the coalition.
In
addition, a recent United Nations report cited claims that some 400
Eritrean troops might be embedded with the Emirati soldiers in Yemen —
something that, if true, could violate a United Nations resolution
restricting Eritrean military activities.
The
United States has also been participating in the Saudi-led campaign in
Yemen, providing logistical support, including airborne refueling, to
the nations conducting the airstrikes. The Pentagon has sent a team to
Saudi Arabia to provide targeting intelligence to the coalition
militaries that is regularly used for the airstrikes.
The
Obama administration has also in recent years approved the sale of
billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware from American
contractors to the Saudi and Emirati militaries, equipment that is being
used in the Yemen conflict. This month, the administration authorized a
$1.29 billion Saudi request for thousands of bombs to replenish stocks
that had been depleted by the campaign in Yemen, although American
officials say that the bombs would take months to arrive and were not
directly tied to the war in Yemen.
The
Saudi air campaign has received widespread criticism from human rights
groups as being poorly planned and as having launched strikes that
indiscriminately kill Yemeni civilians and aid workers in the country.
Last month, Saudi jets struck a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders
in Saada Province in northern Yemen, and in late September the United
Nations reported that 2,355 civilians had been killed since the campaign
began in March.
On
the other side in Yemen is Iran, which over the years has provided
financial and military support to the Houthis, the Shiite rebel group
fighting the coalition of Saudi-led Sunni nations. The divisions have
created the veneer of a sectarian conflict, although Emirati troops in
southern Yemen have also been battling members of Al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula, the Sunni terrorist group’s affiliate in Yemen.
Dozens
of Emirati special operations troops have died since they arrived in
southern Yemen in August. A single rocket attack in early September
killed 45, along with several Saudi and Bahrani soldiers.
The
presence of the Latin American troops is an official secret in the
Emirates, and the government has made no public mention of their
deployment to Yemen. Yousef Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to
Washington, declined to comment. A spokesman for United States Central
Command, the military headquarters overseeing America’s involvement in
the Yemen conflict, also declined to comment.
The
Latin American force in the Emirates was originally conceived to carry
out mostly domestic missions — guarding pipelines and other sensitive
infrastructure and possibly putting down riots in the sprawling camps
housing foreign workers in the Emirates — according to corporate
documents, American officials and several people involved in the
project.
A
2011 intelligence briefing for senior leaders involved in the project
listed Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Somali pirates and domestic
riots as some of the biggest threats to Emirati stability.
The
troops were told that they might one day be called for foreign combat
missions, but until the deployment to Yemen the only external missions
they were given were to provide security on commercial cargo vessels.
Those
missions were rare, and soldiers involved in the project describe years
of monotony at the desert camp, housed within a sprawling Emirati
military base called Zayed Military City. They rise every day at 5 a.m.
for exercise and military training — including shooting practice,
navigation and riot control. A number of Westerners, including several
Americans, live at the camp and serve as trainers for the Latin American
troops.
But
by late morning the sun burns so hot at the windswept complex that the
troops move into air-conditioned classrooms for military instruction.
The
troops live in typically austere military barracks, hanging their
laundry out the windows to dry in the hot air. There is a common
computer room where they can check their email and Facebook pages, but
they are not allowed to post photographs on social media sites. Meals
are basic.
“It’s the same food all the time, every day,” one member of the project said several weeks ago. “Chicken every single day.”
The
Emiratis have spent the equivalent of millions of dollars equipping the
unit, from firearms and armored vehicles to communications systems and
night vision technology. But Emirati leaders rarely visit the camp. When
they do, the troops put on tactical demonstrations, including
rappelling from helicopters and driving armored dune buggies.
And
yet they stay largely because of the money, receiving salaries ranging
from $2,000 to $3,000 a month, compared with approximately $400 a month
they would make in Colombia.
Those troops who deploy to Yemen will receive an additional $1,000 per
week, according to a person involved in the project and a former senior
Colombian military officer.
Hundreds
of Colombian troops have been trained in the Emirates since the project
began in 2010 — so many that the Colombian government once tried to
broker an agreement with Emirati officials to stanch the flow headed to
the Persian Gulf. Representatives from the two governments met, but an
agreement was never signed.
Most
of the recruiting of former troops in Colombia is done by Global
Enterprises, a Colombian company run by a former special operations
commander named Oscar Garcia Batte. Mr. Batte is also co-commander of
the brigade of Colombian troops in the Emirates, and is part of the
force now deployed in Yemen.
Mr.
McFate said that the steady migration of Latin American troops to the
Persian Gulf had created a “gun drain” at a time when Latin American
countries need soldiers in the battle against drug cartels.
But
experts in Colombia said that the promise of making more money fighting
for the Emirates — money that the troops send much of home to their
families in Colombia — makes it hard to keep soldiers at home.
“These
great offers, with good salaries and insurance, got the attention of
our best soldiers,” said Jaime Ruiz, the president of Colombia’s
Association of Retired Armed Forces Officials.
“Many of them retired from the army and left.”
Correction: November 25, 2015
An earlier version of the reporting credit with this article misspelled the name of the Colombian city from which Susan Abad contributed reporting. It is Bogotá, not Bogata.
An earlier version of the reporting credit with this article misspelled the name of the Colombian city from which Susan Abad contributed reporting. It is Bogotá, not Bogata.
Susan Abad contributed reporting from Bogotá, Colombia, and Shuaib Almosawa from Sana, Yemen.
