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U.S. Embassy in Yemen Closing as Violence May Threaten Diplomats

The U.S. is shutting its embassy in Yemen and withdrawing American personnel amid increasing unrest after Shiite Houthi rebels took control in the capital Sana’a.

The State Department is acting as a risk of violence may threaten diplomats, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement on Tuesday in Washington.

“We will explore options for a return to Sana’a when the situation on the ground improves,” Psaki said.

The Houthi takeover raises questions about the future of U.S.-Yemen counterterrorism cooperation against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which U.S. officials say is the foreign terrorist group that presents the greatest threat to the U.S. homeland.

AQAP has claimed responsibility for the massacre at the Paris headquarters of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and made several efforts to blow up U.S. aircraft. One of its members, Ibrahim al-Asiri, has experimented with implanting bombs in the human body, and is considered by intelligence officials to be terrorism’s most sophisticated bomb designer.

In his September address to the nation outlining plans to fight Islamic State, Obama cited Yemen as a place where the U.S has successfully pursued a “strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines.” The U.S. considered President Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi, who resigned last month amid the Houthis’ takeover, a key ally against AQAP.

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Last month, Marine Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, the head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, said the group “remains committed to attacking the West, probably by targeting commercial aviation with innovative explosives.”

Any U.S. effort to cooperate with the Shiite Houthis against Sunni AQAP would complicate relations with Saudi Arabia, which considers the rebels allies of Shiite Iran. Saudi Arabia’s cabinet on Monday accused the Houthis of carrying out a coup after they dissolved parliament in defiance of a Gulf Arab initiative to stabilize the country.

The American embassy ceased public operations last month and began reducing staffing as turmoil increased in the capital.

It’s the third U.S. embassy in the Middle East and North Africa to be closed because of security concerns. The embassy in Damascus closed in 2012, and the facility in Tripoli, Libya, closed last year.

The Houthis disbanded Yemen’s parliament on Feb. 6 and said a national council of 551 members would be appointed to replace it.