Hezbollah ‘training Houthis for new terrorist attacks’

DUBAI: The Lebanese-based Hezbollah is involved in terrorist activities in Yemen and is planning terror attacks in Saudi Arabia, according to Al Arabiya News Channel.
It said the government in Yemen confirmed that Hezbollah is directly caught up with the war tearing through the country between legitimate forces and terrorists.
The insurgency is being led by Houthis and militias affiliated with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The video cited by Al Arabiya featured a Hezbollah commander referred to as “Abu-Saleh,” who is responsible for training Houthi terrorists. Training revolved around terror operations to be staged in Saudi Arabia in the future.
Also Thursday, Asharq Al-Awsat reported that the rising death toll among Hezbollah cadres in Syria has pushed Tehran toward sending more Iranian troops to the battlefronts there.
A higher number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) troops are now fighting alongside Bashar Assad’s forces, especially after the increase of Hezbollah deaths on Syrian battlefronts.
Citing the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Asharq Al-Awsat also said that not less than 865 Hezbollah combatants were killed between September 2012 and February 2016 in Syria.
According to the report, Saudi officials said that Iran is using Afghan refugees to fight along with Hezbollah and Assad’s forces in Syria.
Iran sent thousands of Shiite Afghan refugees to fight alongside Iranian troops and Hezbollah. Refugees in Iran are being threatened with deportation back to Afghanistan if they did not join the battle in Syria, said the report.
Thousands of Afghan troops are joining the “A-Fatimiyin” brigade — the second largest group of combatants fighting next to the Assad regime, according to the report.
An Iranian agency recently gave details of 68 Iranian soldiers killed last month in brawls against the Syrian opposition. Most of them died in Aleppo’s northern rural areas, Asharq Al-Awsat reported.