The State Department late Tuesday night announced the closing of the U.S. embassy in Yemen in reaction to an escalating threat of violence after a Shiite group took over the capital last month.
The British and French also shuttered their embassies, urging staff to evacuate as soon as possible.
“Due to the uncertain security situation in Sanaa, the Department of State has decided to suspend our embassy operations, and our embassy staff have been temporarily relocated out of Sanaa,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
“Recent unilateral actions disrupted the political transition process in Yemen, creating the risk that renewed violence would threaten Yemenis and the diplomatic community in Sanaa,” she added.
The U.S. had already pulled out most of his staff over the course of the last month but was keeping the embassy open until late Tuesday.
Yemen’s government collapsed late last month, as an Iran-linked Shiite Houthi rebels first surrounded the capital then seized it, forcing the resignation of Yemeni President Hadi and his Cabinet. Hadi is a major U.S. ally, and the Saudis also backed his presidency.
Yemen is also the base for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a virulent branch of the terrorist group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S.
Psaki said the U.S. remains “firmly committed” to supporting all Yemenis who continue to work toward a “peaceful, prosperous and unified Yemen.”
“We will explore options for a return to Sanaa when the situation on the ground improves,” she said.
She also called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene in Yemen and pressure the Houthis to release Hadi and his Cabinet, who the group is holding under house arrest.
President Obama just last fall held up Yemen as an example of his counter-terrorism policies working and a model for his approach to the Islamic State.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest doubled down on that comment Tuesday.
“The president has indicated that the counter-terrorism strategy that we have successfully pursued in Yemen is consistent with the kind of strategy that we are pursuing against [ISIS],” he told reporters. “And the reason for that is that it’s consistent with our broader national security interests.”
The U.S., he said, has worked with local officials in Yemen, supported their security forces to help bring the fight to extremists in their own country and have backed up those ground forces with U.S. intelligence and airstrikes.
These drone strikes, he said, “have succeeded in applying significant pressure to extremists that are operating in that country and curtailed their ability to strike American targets.”
“This is a threat we will remain very vigilant about,” he said. “This is a dangerous organization that’s operating in Yemen, and we continue to be very focused on taking the steps that are necessary to mitigate that threat.”
Earnest didn’t discuss the loss of Hadi as a major ally and the intelligence conduit he provided to the United States about al Qaeda and other terrorists group travel in and out of the country and their activity in remote areas.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., last month told the Washington Examiner that the loss of Hadi as the Yemeni head of State will hinder U.S. intelligence operations in the region.
