SANAA: Thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, multiple Yemeni officials told AFP, as Riyadh rallies international help to repel the Houthis and bolster the government in Aden.

It came after the two countries signed cooperation agreements this week including a defence deal, with Syria considering joining the recently enacted mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan.

Hundreds of Syrian troops have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official, with more to come.

Later on Saturday, Syria’s official SANA news agency cited a diplomatic source who insisted Damascus had not sent troops to Yemen “at this time”.

Houthis say they targeted Saudi oil sites, troops and Riyadh airport

However, a source from the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen’s top governing body, told AFP that Syria would send as many as 3,000 troops to help fend off the Houthis.

The arrangement was greenlit during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to Riyadh this week, during which the two countries agreed to various deals, according to the PLC source.

Saudi strikes

Houthi media said on Saturday that Saudi strikes killed 27 people, most of them women and children, in Yemen’s Sanaa province, as deaths mount in the country’s revived civil war.

Saba said earlier on Saturday that operations to recover victims from the rubble were ongoing and that “aircraft targeted paramedics with two strikes”.

The group’s Al Masirah TV broadcast footage that it said was filmed in Al Shariya, showing smoke rising from a struck site, piles of debris and wounded people in hospital.

Missile intercepted

The Saudi-led coalition in a statement on Saturday said it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi missile launched towards Riyadh province.

On Friday, an attack on a market in Taiz province killed 30 people. The Houthis said Saudi airstrikes were to blame, while Yemen’s government forces accused the Iran-backed group of having fired a ballistic missile at the site.

Yemen slipped back into war between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government in July after years of relative calm, opening a new front in the conflict in the Middle East.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2026