Direct proof of use
Armament Research Services documented Arsenal AR-M9 and AR-M9F rifles in the 2014 Yemen Civil War through imagery from coalition-aligned forces. The Yemen-specific record begins with UAE-linked training imagery from Al-Anad Air Base near Aden: The National published images on November 23, 2015 showing a new batch of pro-government Yemeni resistance fighters training at the base, and ARES identified the rifles shown with them as fixed-stock AR-M9 rifles.
ARES also cited a December 17, 2015 image series from the same camp that described more than a thousand graduates from the second batch of UAE-trained Yemeni resistance fighters and again showed fighters armed with AR-M9 rifles. A separate image posted by the Sudanese Armed Forces on January 30, 2016 showed a Sudanese soldier in Yemen with an Arsenal AR-M9F, with additional likely AR-M9F rifles visible nearby; ARES cautioned that the image did not prove whether Sudanese troops had been issued the rifles or were posing with another force's weapon.
Sources: ARES AR-M9 Yemen
Timeline
On November 23, 2015, UAE media published images of pro-government Yemeni resistance fighters training at Al-Anad Air Base. ARES identified the fixed-stock rifles in that imagery as Arsenal AR-M9 rifles rather than AK-101 rifles.
On December 17, 2015, a later image series from the same training camp described a second batch of more than one thousand UAE-trained Yemeni resistance fighters and again showed AR-M9 rifles. On January 30, 2016, Sudan's military posted the image of a Sudanese coalition soldier in Yemen with an AR-M9F; the accompanying information said the soldier had been killed in Yemen on January 29.
Sources: ARES AR-M9 Yemen
Narrative
The documented Yemen role for the AR-M9 family was small-unit infantry armament inside the Saudi-led coalition's support network for anti-Houthi forces. The fixed-stock AR-M9 appears with UAE-trained Yemeni resistance fighters at Al-Anad, while the folding-stock AR-M9F appears in the Sudanese coalition context. ARES connected both appearances to a wider pattern in which Bulgarian Arsenal 5.56 x 45 mm rifles had been documented with Libyan, Yemeni, and Sudanese forces and said sources indicated the weapons may have been provided by the United Arab Emirates.
The cited evidence supports fielding and possession by coalition-aligned personnel in Yemen, not a discrete firing incident, casualty effect, or confirmed end-user chain for every rifle. The Sudanese image is especially limited: it places an AR-M9F with a Sudanese soldier reported killed in Yemen, but ARES did not treat it as proof that Sudanese forces had been formally equipped with the rifle.
Sources: ARES AR-M9 Yemen
