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April 2026– When highly trained American operators sell their skills to the highest bidder, the line between quiet professional and mercenary begins to blur. A recent lawsuit involving former U.S. Special Forces members accused of carrying out assassination attempts in Yemen raises a difficult question: what happens when the training meant to defend a nation is used for something else entirely?
The California Lawsuit
In a California court, Yemeni parliamentarian Ansaf Ali Mayo filed a suit, claiming that three men– Abraham Golan, Isaac Gilmore, and Dale Comstock made an attempt on his life. Along the backdrop of the Yemeni Civil War, Mayo was viewed as an adversary to the UAE, as he was affiliated with al-Islah, Yemen’s second-largest political party with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The three men are being sued for war crimes, crimes against humanity, Golan is of Israeli-Hungarian nationality. Gilmore is a former Navy SEAL. Comstock is former Army Special Forces, who was decommissioned for accidentally shooting a Navy SEAL in 2011.
SPEAR Operations Group
In 2015, Golan and Gilmore founded the private military company, SPEAR Operations Group, out of San Diego, California. The two men approached government officials in the UAE where they met an agreement. In exchange for Spear being paid $1.5 million per month as well as bonuses for successful hits, the group would conduct a wave of targeted political assassinations. After the deal was reached, Comstock was recruited to lead the team.
An official from the NGO representing Mayo, the Center for Justice and Accountability, “The individuals that were employed by Spear Operations Group, many of them were former U.S. Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, who were highly trained by the U.S. government at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer…and they used their skills and the military know-how to sell essentially a killing program to the highest bidder. And they tried to assassinate our client, who is a politician in Yemen.”
The Attack in Yemen
The group of men boarded a chartered jet in New Jersey and flew to Yemen with body armor and tools used to make explosives. They also packed several weeks worth of MREs and alcohol. On December 29th, 2015, the group tracked Mayo to his political party headquarters. They then detonated an explosive device on the building’s front door. They additionally fired shots and detonated a booby trap set up on a nearby SUV. Comstock alleges, “I was just gonna go in there, throw a couple hand grenades, and then just go in there and shoot everyone.”
Golan claims the team is responsible for a number of successful high profile assassinations. A BCC investigation alleges that the UAE used American mercenaries to train locals, leading to over 100 judicial killings within a three year timeframe. The UAE denies these allegations.
Mercenaries in the Legal Gray Zone
The use of private military contractors is not new, but modern conflicts are expanding their role in ways that challenge traditional accountability. Operating in legal gray zones, these groups often fall outside the same chains of command and oversight that govern conventional forces. As a result, the distinction between contractor and mercenary becomes increasingly difficult to define.
