Damascus Denies Report That Syrian Troops Are Deploying to Yemen and Saudi Arabia to Fight Houthis

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Multiple Yemeni officials have told AFP that thousands of Syrian troops are preparing to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already in place, as Riyadh seeks international backing to push back the Iran-backed Houthis and support the government in Aden.

Three separate Yemeni military sources and a defense official said hundreds of Syrian personnel have already been sent to both sides of the border. A source from the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen's top governing body, said Syria would send around 3,000 troops to join the Saudi-led coalition. "The Syrian side and the Saudi side agreed to send around 3,000 troops to fight against the Houthis," said the source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Damascus rejected the account. A Syrian diplomatic source told state news agency SANA that reports that Syria had sent troops "at this time are entirely unfounded," saying the country was concentrating on domestic matters.

The Yemeni sources said the deal was approved during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's visit to Riyadh this week, where the two nations signed cooperation agreements, including a defense pact. One military official said Syrians already positioned on the Yemeni side of the border are directing drone operations against the Houthis there. Saudi Arabia, a major supporter of Syria's post-Assad government, has been lobbying allies for assistance as it faces daily fire from the jihadist group, which recently took over stretches of the Red Sea coastline from the Riyadh-backed government. Houthi attacks intensified after a truce broke down over the summer, closing Riyadh's airport for two weeks following deadly strikes and endangering the kingdom's economic diversification plans.

Even while denying the deployment, the Syrian source described the current military cooperation with Saudi Arabia as centered on training Syrian forces, building their capabilities and exchanging expertise. Visits by Saudi officials to Syria for coordination are expected to start next month, and the cooperation could eventually grow into a mutual defense agreement or Syrian membership in the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, the source added.

Separately, two Syrian military sources and a senior US official told Reuters on Friday that Syria has been providing Riyadh with military advice and training and has sent a limited number of personnel to the kingdom, without saying they were there for combat. The US official said Syrian advisers and training teams were helping Saudi and Yemeni units inside the kingdom improve their combat effectiveness. A senior Syrian diplomat responded that "any suggestion of military deployments at this stage is premature," noting Syria's focus on internal security, border protection and reconstruction, and said the defense cooperation deal signed on Wednesday "specifically includes advisory support, training and exchange of expertise." A senior Saudi official said the expertise sharing was "mainly to restructure the Syrian forces," but added that Syrian partners also contribute combat experience in fighting militias, and confirmed joint exercises were underway.

A source at Yemen's Defense Ministry told AFP the plan's first phase would involve 3,000 Syrian fighters, including officers and experts, some already in the field, with the agreement providing for more than 10,000 fighters in total in later stages. Technical teams from the two defense ministries are said to be in Riyadh finalizing arrangements under a signed legal framework. If confirmed, the Syrians would be the first foreign boots on the ground in the Yemen conflict since it reignited over the summer, though Egypt has pledged military help if requested and France has deployed soldiers to guard Saudi Arabia's Yanbu oil terminal.

Last week Syria's top diplomat said publicly that Damascus was weighing whether to join the NATO-style Mecca defense alliance binding Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a pact signed in August declaring an attack on one member an attack on all. Egypt's parliament has approved defensive military support for Saudi Arabia if requested, French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that France was sending troops to shield a key Saudi oil terminal, and the UK announced in October it would deploy fighter planes to aid the kingdom.

Fighting in Yemen has flared since a 2022 truce collapsed over the summer. The Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, struck its ships, territory and oil facilities, and seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coast, while reporting frequent Saudi airstrikes. According to the United Nations, more than 1,600 people have been killed and over 300,000 displaced since the fighting resumed. Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Houthis captured the capital, and the Saudi-led coalition entered the conflict a year later in support of the government. The Syrian army itself is a patchwork of mostly Islamist groups, including foreign jihadists, that toppled Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.