Military leaders from Iran and Hezbollah are assisting Houthis on the ground in Yemen to bolster the Tehran-backed terrorist group’s strikes on shipping vessels crossing the Red Sea, according to reports citing regional and Iranian sources.
Iran has beefed up its supply of weapons to the Houthis — who were labeled terrorists by US officials on Wednesday — by shipping out advanced drones along with anti-ship cruise missiles, precision-strike ballistic missiles and medium-range missiles, sources said.
Members from both Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Tehran-backed Hezbollah have also been spotted in Yemen assisting the Houthis with training, helping them assemble missile parts smuggled into the country, and supervising military operations, according to former Yemeni army sources.
“The Revolutionary Guards have been helping the Houthis with military training” on advanced weapons, an Iranian insider said.
“A group of Houthi fighters were in Iran last month and were trained in an IRGC base in central Iran to get familiar with the new technology and the use of missiles.”
The Houthis, a radical Shia Islamist sect who control the majority of Yemen, have ramped up their Red Sea attacks since Oct. 7, after Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in Israel and sparked the invasion of Gaza.
Pledged their support for the Hamas terrorists, the Houthis have targeted dozens of ships heading toward Israeli ports or controlled by allies of the Middle Eastern nation, including the US, as vengeance for the ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
IRGC leaders and advisers are also feeding Houthis data and intelligence to highlight which of the many ships passing through the Red Sea are bound for or linked to Israel, sources said.
“The political decision is in Tehran, the management is Hezbollah, and the location is the Houthis in Yemen,” a senior regional source with expertise on Iran said.
The Red Sea attacks have destabilized a crucial route that carries roughly 15% of the world’s trade and is a vital link between Asia and Europe.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, shipping costs have skyrocketed by more than 600% due to terror attacks targeting vessels crossing the Red Sea.
Analysts said the Red Sea attacks are a way of Tehran flexing its network of armed Shia fighters to showcase its influence across the region, but also to demonstrate how costly the Gaza war can be for the West and the potential repercussions for the Middle East if fighting continues to escalate.
Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for the foreign ministry of Iran, has repeatedly denied Tehran plays any role in the Houthis’ Red Sea strikes.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, however, has lavished praise on the terror group’s series of Red Sea strikes, and said he is praying that they continue “until victory.”
The United States has launched at least six strikes since last week targeting Houthi-linked sites in Yemen.
President Biden, however, admitted on Thursday, the strikes were unlikely to deter the Houthis attacks on Red Sea vessels.
With Post wires.