A team of Argus Security Operatives attacked in Yemen

Heavily Armed Gunmen killed a French Operative in Sanaa capital of Yemen, yesterday.
The Yemen Minister of Interior confirmed the attack and simply added that a "foreigner" was killed and 2 others with him seriously wounded.
The gunmen approached using an SUV with no REG plates, the SUV then blocked the road and the Argus Security Operatives were then shot at.
The operatives were part of Argus Security Project Limited (http://www.argusgroup.eu) and ASP is in charge of the CP for the EU Delegation in Sanaa. One of the heads of the company in Cyprus confirmed this information.
ASP (French-Hungarian company) got the contract with the EU just a month or so ago and got it very fast due to an immediate and urgent need, the contract is worth over 1,5 million euros.
The operative killed is French, Ex para from the 3ème RPIMa regiment and has been in the SY industry since leaving the army in 2005 (he served over 20 years in the paras)

Bad news Ted. RIP to the Frenchman that lost his life.

It doesn`t look as though the Toyota the operatives were in was armoured, rounds straight through the windscreen. Call me a wimp but I wouldn`t fancy rolling round Yemen in a soft skin, a well known AQ hotbed.

It certainly gives a very negative image of Argus.
They send their personnel through the streets of Sanaa in a soft skin, that really is disgraceful.

Surprising the operatives let this happen and didn't channel up the information.
Get us armoured vehicles or find new operatives.
Life has no price and it doesn't matter how good the company is paying.

The contract is probably worth over 2 millions euros, and they don't have any money to provide decent equipment?
Would I be right in saying they probably put "Armoured vehicles" on the quote?

Many companies do that, they quote armoured vehicles to make more money but then provide soft skins.

They were obviously surveilled prior to this; else how did the bad guys know who they were, where they were going and when?

Stay alert people, it saves lives!

H

Spot on hoepoe, if the info is correct they were carrying out CP for the EU delegation in Sanaa so a fairly high profile task, easy work for the bad guys and although I`ve never been to Yemen, a risky place to operate I`m sure.

I wonder if this news from today is related? Sounds like the same MO in both incidents (see underlined text)




(Reuters) - Yemeni forces on Wednesday killed three members of a militant cell who authorities believe carried out assassinations in the capital Sanaa and attacked a German diplomat late last month, a Yemeni official and a security source said.

The security source said special forces raided a house in the Shmailah district of south Sanaa and killed three al Qaeda militants.

"They were behind the attempted killing of the German diplomat," the security source said.

The diplomat, a political attaché, was injured during an apparent kidnapping attempt, embassy and police sources said at the time. He managed to escape gunmen who tried to block a road near the German embassy in Sanaa with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

A Yemeni official told Reuters: "They (special forces) targeted the infamous assassination cell and one of them was the guy responsible for shooting the German embassy vehicle and the diplomat. They resisted arrest and all three were killed."

It was not immediately known whether the cell was involved in the killing on Monday of a Frenchman working as a security agent for the EU mission in Sanaa.

Yemen, home to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, faces many security challenges from a stubborn Islamist insurgency, southern secessionists, occasional tribal conflicts and a rebellion by Shi'ite Muslim Houthis in the north.

The army is carrying out a big offensive against al Qaeda militants in the south of the country.

Sabre wrote:
Call me a wimp but I wouldn`t fancy rolling round Yemen in a soft skin, a well known AQ hotbed.

Anyone calling you a wimp would be off his mind. Yemen is dangerous, but on top of that, the clients on that contract are.... diplomatic !!! Outrageous !! Armor is (was !) a must, period.

I know an operative who was in Amman for Argus, he had a lot of negative things to say about them.
Its all good and well having contracts worth millions, its all good and well attending Milipol France in order to find even more contracts, but the most important thing is taking care of your operatives, they would have probably never died if they were using armored vehicles.

The terrorists would have maybe seen the armored vehicles during their pre attack surveillance and would have gone on to softer targets or if they missed the armored vehicle they would have shot at people who could not be even be hit.

its a great shame many companies put on their quote that all the vehicles used are armored when in fact they don't take care of their own, seems they like money over everything else including other human beings and that is sickening.

As for the local driver, how much do you want to bet he wasn't trained up in advanced driving?

I also don' t understand why such a BTDT soldier would end up on such a contract, instead of a good one with proper equipment. I know guys from the French military with less, much less experience, but still working on better gigs.

At the end of the day it's all about what the guys on the ground accept or not.