Abraham Golan, a mercenary allegedly behind the failed plot to assassinate a member of Yemen’s House of Representatives, has been named as a defendant by Anssaf Ali Mayo, who narrowly escaped death at Golan’s hands, according to documents reported by the New York Post.
In August 2015, Golan co-founded the group Spear Operations in Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego, with former Navy SEAL Isaac Gilmore. The two allegedly pitched and secured a deal with the UAE to carry out "targeted assassinations" on behalf of the Emirates, the lawsuit claims. In return, Spear was reportedly to receive $1.5 million per month plus bonuses for successful hits.
The deal was allegedly struck during a lunch at an Italian restaurant in the officers' club of a UAE military base in Abu Dhabi, arranged by Mohammed Dahlan, former head of Palestinian Authority security.
"There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen. I ran it. We executed it. It was approved by the UAE within the coalition," Golan allegedly stated, according to the documents.
After the UAE deal was secured, the duo recruited former military personnel—a key element of their pitch to the UAE—including Dale Comstock, a former U.S. Army Special Forces member, who was paid $40,000 per month plus bonuses to lead the assassination team. The group was reportedly formed by December.
They boarded a chartered plane at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and flew to Yemen with body armor and specialized explosive-making tools. They also allegedly brought several weeks' worth of military MREs and three cases of Basil Hayden’s whiskey, as alcohol was reportedly unavailable in Yemen.
According to the lawsuit, their primary target was Mayo, who topped the kill list because he was a member of the al-Islah party, Yemen’s second-largest political group, linked to the UAE’s enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood. The alleged plan was to plant explosives at the al-Islah headquarters in Aden, where Mayo worked, and then kill survivors with small arms, the documents state.
Drone footage captured the dramatic assassination attempt. The team reached the headquarters, where Comstock allegedly placed a shrapnel-packed explosive device and detonated it. A massive explosion shook the building, gunfire followed, and then footage shows a second explosion triggered by a planted car bomb designed to amplify the destruction.
"I planned to try to open the door, throw a couple of grenades, and then go in and shoot everybody," Comstock said, according to the lawsuit.
Mayo was warned his life was in danger and fled moments before the explosion destroyed the building, surviving the attack.
He claims to have suffered "psychological and emotional trauma" from the event and now lives in exile in Saudi Arabia.
Golan then allegedly placed $40,000 on the table. Comstock took the money and the position, court documents claim. He was paid $40,000 per month plus bonuses, according to the lawsuit.
Golan also hired Gilmore as Spear’s COO in October 2015. Gilmore was discharged from the U.S. military in 2011 for accidentally wounding a Navy SEAL during a training exercise.
Since 2016, Mayo has lived apart from his wife and children, who still reside in Yemen. He sees them once a year, the documents state. He is seeking compensation and punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and a court order preventing the assassination team from targeting him.
Golan, Gilmore, and Comstock are all named as defendants. The documents state that Gilmore is a U.S. citizen and resident of San Diego, while Golan, an Israeli-Hungarian citizen, now lives in Westport, Connecticut.
Comstock is a U.S. citizen and resides in Indonesia, the lawsuit claims.
According to Golan’s alleged statements, the Spear assassination team continued to kill targets in Yemen at the UAE’s request and was responsible for a series of high-profile assassinations after the failed attempt on Mayo, the lawsuit alleges.
A UN panel of experts stated in documents that it "found reasonable grounds to believe that the United Arab Emirates was responsible for 10 assassinations in Aden that they investigated."
The UAE’s intervention in Yemen is attributed in the lawsuit to three reasons. First, given Iran’s support for the Houthis, the UAE sought to prevent Iran from expanding its influence in Yemen.
The second reason points to the UAE’s "commercial ambitions" and desire to control the Gulf of Aden to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, "which Iran has often threatened to close," the documents state.
The third reason is that the UAE wanted to eliminate al-Islah, the Yemeni political party of which Mayo was a member.