Lebanese Hezbollah fighter killed in Yemen: Saudi daily

Sanaa, April 9 (IANS/AKI) The body of a member of Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah was identified among rebels killed in fighting in southern Yemen, pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday.

The Saudi-owned paper cited Yemeni tribal sources as confirming that Hezbollah militiamen had been fighting alongside the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The alleged Hezbollah fighter's body was recovered in Yemen's Shabwa province, the paper said.

The daily claimed advisors from Iran's Revolutionary Guards were in Yemen to "plan and coordinate communications" between the Iran-allied Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies have for the past two weeks been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthi rebels to try and drive them back from the southern city of Aden.

The rebels are trying to wrest Aden from local militias, after Yemen's president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi fled the city in late March. Houthi fighters control the capital, Sanaa.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday condemned the Saudi-led air campaign, saying it was causing genocide.

Iran has denied Riyadh's repeated accusations that it has trained and equipped the Houthi forces.

--IANS/AKI

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