Mattis secretly advised Arab monarch on Yemen war, records show

Soon after his country began bombing Yemen in 2015, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates confidentially reached out to an old friend: retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who also served as the deputy supreme commander of the Emirati military, needed help. The UAE was part of a coalition of Arab countries that had intervened in Yemen’s civil war to fight Iran-backed Houthi rebels. But the coalition’s bombing campaign was killing large numbers of civilians and doing little to deter the Houthis.

With the conflict threatening to turn into a regional quagmire, Mohamed asked Mattis, who retired from the Marines in 2013 after years of fighting wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, to work for him as a military adviser.