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A Syrian military delegation has held talks in Saudi Arabia on arrangements to transfer as many as 10,000 Syrian fighters to participate in the war against Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah), Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on October 20, citing Yemeni intelligence sources.
The reported discussions come despite denials by Syria’s transitional government that Damascus intends to send thousands of fighters to southern Saudi Arabia. The alleged deployment could extend Syria’s involvement in a regional conflict that has intensified in recent weeks.
According to Al-Akhbar, the delegation included Brig. Gen. Khaled Khattab, commander of the 82nd Division in Syria’s new army and a former leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al-Tawhid faction, and Brig. Gen. Haitham al-Ali, also known as Abu Muslim, commander of the army’s 3rd Corps and a former leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Yemeni intelligence sources told the newspaper that Khattab spent four days in the southern Saudi provinces of Asir and Najran, accompanied by Saudi officers, visiting sites reportedly being prepared to receive the Syrian fighters.
Al-Ali, meanwhile, held meetings with Saudi officers at the Defense Ministry in Riyadh to discuss transportation costs, financial arrangements, additional benefits and the military missions the contingent would carry out.
The sources said the visiting team had completed preparations for the logistical transfer of the fighters, but the report did not establish when a deployment might take place.
Al-Akhbar also cited sources aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government based in Aden as saying that dozens of Syrian trainers specializing in drone operations were already present at military camps in Asir and several locations in Yemen. These reportedly included facilities near Seiyun in Hadramout province, the al-Khasha camp in Hadramout and the al-Anad military base.
The sources said the trainers were instructing members of the Saudi-backed Homeland Shield forces and Giants Brigades. The sources also alleged that Syrian drone operators had established units within Saudi Arabia’s Emergency Forces in Asir and in the al-Wadiah and Sharurah areas.
The report further raised the possibility that foreign fighters could be transferred alongside Syrians. Al-Akhbar cited Syria’s Sham TV as reporting that Khattab was responsible for assembling foreign recruits for deployment to Yemen.
According to the broadcaster, prospective recruits were being offered generous salaries, free pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina, and the possibility of relocating their families to Yemen after a period of what it described as “stability.”
Al-Akhbar cited analysts specializing in political Islam who said fighters from the Syrian army’s 84th Division, which reportedly includes foreign Islamist fighters, could also be transferred. The newspaper said the contingent could include Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Afghans, Chechens, Albanians and Arabs of various nationalities.
The report suggested that relocating foreign fighters could serve Damascus’ interest in reducing the security burden posed by foreign armed groups while consolidating control over the new military establishment. It also cited concerns among observers in Sanaa that transferring such fighters to Yemen could deepen sectarian divisions and prolong the conflict.
A military source in Sanaa told Al-Akhbar that any Syrian involvement in the war against the Houthis Yemen “would not be official.”
“Sending masses of extremists is an intelligence operation that governments do not acknowledge, because it conflicts with international law,” the source said, arguing that the use of foreign armed groups would amount to covert intervention.
The source also accused the United States, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia of supporting the deployment and training of armed groups in Syria during the campaign against former President Bashar Assad, drawing a connection to their current regional cooperation.
The newspaper’s report comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to strengthen its military position against the Houthis, who have continued attacks on Saudi targets while advancing on fronts in Yemen. However, it remains unclear whether the reported Syrian arrangements will result in an actual deployment or whether the scale of the proposed force could be achieved.
Syria’s fractured and under-equipped military is unlikely to change the course of the war in Yemen. Still, participation could carry profound consequences for Damascus, exposing it to retaliation by Iran and its regional allies, undermining the new government’s promise to keep Syria out of foreign conflicts, and threatening the country’s fragile economic recovery.
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wahabi/takfiri scum helping each other out. ansarallah houthi warriors will greet them with ballistic missiles and drones.
and for some magical reason, they care more about yemen than their own territory seized by israel.
trump kissed their leaders ass when he came to the white house they all work for the same small hats
americas head chopper mercenary team paid with u s tax dollars
inhuman salafist savages and their zionist masters!
and they will meet hell before they know it… houthis aren´t russians that have piety on salafi terrorists and put those bastards on buses and sent they to idlibistan! how stupid!
sounds like a cattle call for isis and al queda mercenaries ? think of the reduction of income to globalist monetary empire from the loss of saudi energy revenue. how great is this loss ?