Yet he also insists he is not actually in the UAE military. “I’m a major general for the United Arab Emirates,” he testified in a child custody hearing in Florida. “I hold the duty, rank, the responsibilities of a major general.” But in the very next breath, he stated, “I’m not currently in their armed forces.”

In WhatsApp messages to BuzzFeed News, Toumajan, who retired from the US Army in 2007 after 20 years of service, said: “Stephen A. Toumajan has not sworn allegiance to the UAE nor is he in the UAE military.” He added, in a slightly ungrammatical message, “Stephen A. Toumajan is a civilian contractor whom has the trust and confidence of the Deputy Supreme Commander whom asked him to form the UAE Joint Aviation Command.” He said the forces fighting in Yemen are not under his command, and that his activities are authorized by the US government.

The US Army says it is currently reviewing Toumajan’s situation. The State Department said the law bars it from discussing specific cases, though it says it has never authorized any contractor to provide “direct command functions” to a foreign army.

“I was an officer in the US Army,” said Sean McFate, a fellow at the Atlantic Council who has written a book about private military contractors. “And the first thing you learn as a cadet is you are responsible for everything your unit does or fails to do, and that is the military ethos worldwide. If his unit ends up firing on innocents, from a military ethos standpoint, that blood is on him.”

But in such a case, who would investigate or discipline him? Would it be military courts under the US Uniform Code of Military Justice, the UAE’s judicial system, or some other kind of court? “If an airstrike by the US goes bad, there is a clear set of procedures that comes next,” said Peter Singer, a strategist for New America, a nonprofit think tank. “It’s not always perfect but there are results, and in some cases there are court martials.” For Toumajan, he said, “What is the process here? For this individual?”