Yemen dismantles large US, Israeli espionage network

Yemen’s security authorities say they have dismantled a large espionage network that was working for the United States and Israel amid the Arab country’s military campaign to support the people of Gaza in their struggle against the Israeli aggression.

Head of Yemen’s Security and Intelligence Service Major General Abdul Hakim Hashem Al-Khaiwani said on Monday that the spying ring had been active within various government departments in the country for the past eight years.

“The exposed network collected important information in various fields and carried out direct espionage technical operations on behalf of the enemy’s intelligence services to obtain confidential, sovereign information,” said Khaiwani in a televised statement.

Security authorities said the US-Israeli led espionage network had recruited officials within the Yemeni government to influence decision-makers and infiltrate state agencies.

Spies also carried out operations to spread diseases in Yemen to target its health system, authorities said, adding that the network had promoted “moral corruption” to undermine the education system in the country.

The network had provided intelligence to the US and Israeli militaries to help them hit the Yemeni infrastructure used to target Israeli and US-linked ships in regional waters.

The uncovering comes as Yemen is carrying out a series of extensive military operations against Israel, the US and Britain as part of a campaign to support people of Gaza in the face of an Israeli aggression that has killed more than 37,000 people in the Palestinian territory since it started in October last year.

Yemen first started targeting Israeli linked ships and Israeli ports in November but drone and missile attacks expanded later to cover US and British ships after the two countries launched airstrikes on Yemen to force it to stop its anti-Israeli operations.

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