Iran offering Houthi fighters $100 a month

Militia behind Red Sea attacks see numbers swell after targeting Yemenis living in ‘dire poverty’

‘The propaganda of this mass recruitment has given the Houthis a much-needed boost’

IRAN is offering $100 (£79) a month to desperate Yemenis if they join the Houthi rebels in their war on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Thousands of fighters have joined the ranks in recent weeks, according to sources in opposition-held territories, amid an aggressive recruitment drive.

Yemen, where more than 80 per cent of the country lives below the poverty line, has proved a fertile recruiting ground, with more than 100,000 militiamen thought to be backed by Iran.

The money offered to fighters is dwarfed by the $1,300 (£1,020) a month Iran pays to members of Hezbollah’s military wing in Lebanon.

The disparity has caused discontent in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which controls the funding and training of foreign militias, a Middle East intelligence source told The Daily Telegraph.

Concern is also growing in Iran about buying US dollars to pay foreign fighters, leaked documents suggest, a move which they fear further devalues the Iranian currency.

In November, Mohammed al-houthi, leader of the Houthi’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee, said 10,000 people had been recruited to support Hamas in its war on Israel. But in recent weeks, thousands more have been taken on for the new battlefront.

Yesterday, France said its navy would begin escorting ships with French interests through the Red Sea region, but added that it would not be involved in striking the Houthis directly.

Britain and the US are poised to target the Yemeni rebels in attacks on their missile launchers, and Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, warned “watch this space” when asked about the potential for Western military action.

Abdel-malek al-houthi, the Houthi’s leader, yesterday warned the US that his organisation would retaliate fiercely if it was targeted. Since Oct 7, the rebel group has targeted shipping with drones and missiles as part of an anti-israel campaign.

“The Houthis have been able to garner a lot more support on the ground since this new front emerged due to the Yemeni population’s sympathies with Gaza,” said a government source from the Southern Transitional Council (STC).

In 2022, Iran’s Quds Force which oversees the foreign proxies, received an additional $250 million (£196 million) from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to finance the Houthis, enabling them to arm themselves with long-range missiles, ballistic missiles and state-of-the-art drone technology that have been used in its latest war on Israeli and US targets.

The Houthi militia, which controls large swathes of Yemen, had little support amid the ongoing war against the government. The country has become the poorest in the region with a critical humanitarian crisis.

“With the dire poverty and lack of basic means of survival, the population is now very vulnerable to recruitment,” the STC source added.

However, beyond the Red Sea, the militia claims it is also recruiting for troops to join Hamas in Gaza.

“How exactly they do this hasn’t been made clear and it’s an unlikely scenario, but the propaganda of this mass recruitment has given the Houthis a much needed boost,” said the STC source.

Last month, recruitment stepped up in a number of districts in Yemen’s Dhamar Governorate, about 50 miles south of Sanaa.

The Houthis organised a military parade for 20,000 recruits on Dec 24, who graduated from short military courses in Abes district, Hajja’s northern province. Earlier it had organised a military parade in Sanaa for another 16,000 recruits who were reported to have graduated from the training.