The Iranian embassy in Ankara denied Sunday Turkish media reports of Tehran deploying over 100 Syrian mercenaries to fight alongside its ally militia in Yemen, the Houthis. It said that accounts published by Anadolu Agency “proved lack of knowledge on field realities.”
“This false claim contradicts the Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach in the disastrous and inhuman war against Yemeni people,” the embassy said in a tweet, adding that Iran has long-sought ending conflict in the war-torn nation and has backed UN peace efforts.
In a Middle East report, Anadolu cited sources with knowledge of the matter in eastern Syria claiming Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has sent local fighters on its payroll to join Houthi ranks in Yemen.
An initial batch of around 120 Syrian combatants was deployed to the Houthi-run capital, Sanaa, where the foreign mercenaries will receive a week of arms training before being assigned across battle outposts in Yemen.
Turkish sources said the fighters would receive up to $500 a month according to their three-months renewable contract with the Revolutionary Guard. They are primarily tasked with assisting Iran-backed Houthi militias.
After testing the first deployment’s efficiency in combat, Tehran will hire more Syrian guns to join Houthis in Yemen, sources predicted.
The guerillas, pretending to be Shiite pilgrims, were transported via the Iraqi-Syrian Border Crossing.
After arriving in Iraq, the fighters were then moved to Iran, where they boarded different humanitarian relief boats and were essentially smuggled into battle-weary Yemen.
On a tangent, the report mentions the Syrian regime’s decreasing authority in areas it controls in eastern Syria, where Iran-aligned proxies are reigning unchecked by the Syrian government.
