File image.
On December 26, the Saudi-led coalition released two videos showing an alleged leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah working with the Houthis (Ansar Allah) in Yemen.
The videos were presented by coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Malki, who claimed that Hezbollah had been training the Houthis on the use of suicide drones at the international airport of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
“Hezbollah’s terrorist organization has spread destruction in the region and the world, and it bears responsibility for targeting civilians in Saudi Arabia and Yemen,” the spokesman said at a press conference that was held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The first video shows the alleged Hezbollah leader discussing the battle of the western Yemeni province of al-Hudaydah with a man who was identified by the Saudi-led coalition as Abu Ali al-Hakim, a senior military commander of the Houthis.
In the second video, which was allegedly taken inside Sanaa International Airport, the same leader can be seen instructing alleged Houthi fighters on the use of “Qasef” suicide drones.
#عاجل
#التحالف يعرض لقطات فيديو تؤكد تورط حزب الله اللبناني الإرهابي باليمن واستخدام مطار صنعاء لاستهداف المملكة.#واس_عام pic.twitter.com/fMXboVqYTE— واس العام (@SPAregions) December 26, 2021
The coalition’s videos are questionable to say the least. The dialect of the alleged Hezbollah leader is not Lebanese. Furthermore, the drone shown in the second video does not resample Qasef-1 or 2K which are usually used by the Houthis.
A Yemeni source told the Hezbollah-affiliated U-News agency that the videos released by the Saudi-led coalition are fake.
“The speaker in the video published by the Saudi coalition is not Lebanese, [the video] does not included footage of any Lebanese [personal],” the source said.
The videos, real or not, were likely released by the Saudi-led coalition to justify harsher airstrikes on Houthi-held areas in Yemen. A few hours after the release of the video, coalition warplanes carried out airstrikes on the Air Defense Camp near Sanaa.
The Saudi-led coalition is apparently not planning to halt its airstrikes on Yemen anytime soon. The Houthis will likely continue to strike back.
