US Urges Citizens to Leave Yemen Due to Increasing Security Threat

US State Department urges American citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those currently living in Yemen to depart adding that the US had suspended embassy operation in Sanaa.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United States urged its citizens to leave Yemen as soon as possible over deteriorating security situation, the US State Department said in its official blog on Wednesday.

"The Department urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and those U.S. citizens currently living in Yemen to depart," the statement read.

The department also confirmed that it had suspended embassy operation in the Yemeni capital "due to the deteriorating security situation in Sanaa."

The notice superseded the previous travel warning for Yemen issued by the US State Department in September 2014.

Also on Wednesday, the United Kingdom said it evacuated its diplomatic staff from Yemen, and shut its embassy in Sanaa amid security concerns following a coup by the Houthis.

The Houthis, Yemeni Shiite opposition group, first staged massive protests against injustice on the part of the Yemeni government last August. They took over a number of cities, including Sanaa, prompting the US-backed president to resign.

After months of sectarian clashes, the Houthis dissolved the country's parliament last week and declared that the Revolutionary Committee, the group's security arm, would govern Yemen.