Yemen Shi'ite Houthi rebels are fighting alongside Syrian president Bashar Assad's forces in Syria according to a a report on Thursday in the London based daily Asharq Al-Awsat.
A Yemeni official told the paper that hundreds of Houthi rebels are fighting in Syria and they view the fighting there as a "holy jihad."
The source said that the fighters first travel to Hezbollah camps in Lebanon and then cross the border into Syria.
"The arrival of Houthi fighters in Syria coincided with the announcement of Hezbollah’s involvement in the fighting alongside the Syrian regime,” said the source.
He also said that the Houthis have a relationship extending back before the current civil war, as they would use Syria as "a way-station through which they traveled to Tehran and south Lebanon for combat training."
He said they "would use Iranian documents to travel from Damascus so that Yemeni authorities would not know where they had been when they returned home."
The source added that Iran is using two Eritrean islands in the Red Sea for training purposes and to store weapons for the Houthi rebels. Last week 200 Houthi fighters left Yemen to fight in Syria, according to the report.
Houthis are Shi’ite Muslims from the Zaydi branch, believing up until the 5th Imam, Zayd ibn Ali. Most Shi’ites are twelver Shia, as is that of the leadership of Iran, which believe that there were twelve divinely guided leaders (Imams), descendants from the prophet Muhammad and his daughter Fatimah and her husband Ali.
The Houthis have been fighting a rebellion from their base in northern Yemen since 2004 with a number of cease-fires and mediation attempts. Yemen’s government blames Iran for arming and supporting the Houthis.