BBC Film Maker Discovers Saudi, UAE Cooperation With Al-Qaeda In Yemen

At some point, it seems like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the rest of the GCC would simply admit they are funding and supporting jihadists and al-Qaeda terror groups across the world. After all, an official public announcement is, at this point, merely a formality since it is apparent to all who follow the developments of international terrorism and geopolitics with even a slight amount of critical thought.

Still, despite the ample evidence that GCC member states are some of the largest financial supporters of al-Qaeda, the Western mainstream press has opted for the “shadowy” and “wealthy Islamist donation” theory of al-Qaeda funding. But even with such staunch cover provided by a media apparatus itself tightly controlled by relevant Western governments and intelligence agencies, the myriad of connections between the jihadist terrorist organization and the GCC cannot be fully hidden.

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For instance, a documentary film maker working for the BBC has recently brought back evidence of collaboration between the Saudi-led coalition and al-Qaeda fighters in Yemen.

The film maker, as part of her mission, filmed fighters from the United Arab Emirates and those from “jihadist” brigades. The film maker discovered that, not only were the jihadists and the coalition members fighting the same enemy (Houthi rebels opposed to the government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi) but that they were doing so in a coordinated fashion.

The coalition publicly denies supporting the jihadists but Safa al-Ahmad, the BBC film maker discovered just the opposite upon her trip to Taiz, an embattled city under control of jihadist fighters but essentially surrounded and cut off by Houthi rebels.

Al-Ahmad spoke to “militia” fighters conducting operations against the Houthis from a hilltop near Taiz who were doing so with the tactical assistance of UAE troops. Al-Ahmad was warned by one of the groups not to film them and was later warned that they were offended by the presence of a women in their midst. She was informed they were members of Ansar al-Sharia.

Al-Ahmad stated that it appeared that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was seizing parts of southern Yemen as well as Mukalla, an important port city, by exploiting chaos.

Of the situation around Taiz, BBC reports,

Pro-government [Hadi] forces have been battling the rebels for control of Taiz, about 205km (123 miles) south of the rebel-held capital Sanaa, for months.

The Houthis control all routes into and out of the city, and are besieging a Sunni Islamist-dominated alliance of local forces holding the city centre, while coalition-led forces are attacking the rebels [Houthis] on several fronts to the south and west.

Over the past year, a number of reports have surfaced suggesting that AQAP and coalition forces have been working together to attack the Houthis in Southern Yemen. Other reports point out that the coalition forces are avoiding confrontation with the AQAP and vice versa in a de facto agreement.

With Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s relationship to terrorists in Syria and Iraq, however, it is not logical to believe that they are not supporting the same terrorist organization in Yemen.