CNN reports, citing informed sources, that over 100 US military advisors are stationed in Saudi Arabia providing intelligence and target selection assistance against the Houthis. US officials assess that Iranian regime personnel are currently in Yemen operating alongside the Houthis, ultimately aiming to block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
CNN reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the details, that more than 100 US military advisors are deployed in Saudi Arabia, providing the Saudi-led coalition with intelligence and target-selection support for operations against the Iran-backed Houthis. The report quotes US officials assessing that Iranian regime personnel are now present in Yemen, operating alongside the Houthis, with the stated objective of ultimately closing the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The report lands about 14 hours after the thread's Thursday-night updates and, for the first time in the thread, puts Iranian personnel on the ground in Yemen on record as a US official assessment.
The thread began Thursday at 22:16 Jerusalem, when The Zioneer carried two updates in quick succession. The first, citing a CNN report, described the US expansion of intelligence and targeting support for Saudi Arabia's campaign against the Houthis — more than 100 American advisors operating in a new joint command established in recent weeks, about 200 US personnel in total — amid assessments that Iran was increasing its assistance to Houthi attacks on Saudi territory. The second, citing an American official, said 100 additional advisors were being deployed with immediate effect, though the official did not specify their mission. Friday's CNN report advances the picture by attributing the Iranian presence in Yemen to US officials.
The backdrop has built for days. As The Zioneer reported Thursday at 16:05 Jerusalem, the Houthis captured the Al-Omari military base and the Zubayr airport runway in southwestern Yemen, placing their forces 30 kilometers from Bab el-Mandeb. The Zioneer's Houthis topic page, updated Friday at 00:45 Jerusalem, records the subsequent Houthi-IRGC capture of the entire western Yemen coast and the seizure of Az-Zubab, alongside the establishment of the US-Saudi joint command. As The Zioneer reported in late July, the US, Israel and Gulf states were reportedly preparing a joint military operation against Iran and the Houthis.
Still unresolved: the CNN report rests on unnamed sources, and the number and precise role of the Iranian personnel — and the basis of the US assessment — are not specified. The thread's own figures were never reconciled: Thursday's report described about 200 US personnel in the joint command and a separate immediate deployment of 100 more advisors; Friday's "more than 100" leaves unclear whether it refers to the existing force, the new deployment, or both.
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