The United States has halted some counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda militants in Yemen following a takeover of the country by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned on Thursday, just days after Houthi rebels battled their way into his presidential palace, plunging the unstable Arab country deeper into chaos and depriving Washington of a key ally against al Qaeda.
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, an official with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, has urged Muslims to carry out lone-wolf strikes in Western countries two weeks after his group said it was behind the Paris attacks, SITE Monitoring reported.
Iran said on Tuesday it was ready for "straight talks" with Saudi Arabia over contentious issues that have kept the rival Gulf powers at loggerheads for more than three decades.
Al Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, saying it was ordered by the Islamist militant group's leadership for insulting the Prophet Mohammad, according to a video posted on YouTube.
This week's deadly attacks in France by Islamist gunmen showed the limits of spy and anti-terrorist agencies, which often have information about perpetrators in advance but are only able to assemble all the clues after the bloodletting has taken place.
Three Yemenis and two Tunisians held for more than a decade at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo have been flown to Kazakhstan for resettlement, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of prisoner transfers aimed at closing the facility.
Divisions among the veto-wielding powers of the U.N. Security Council are harming the world's children and sowing the seeds of future conflicts, the head of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.
Six men held for more than a decade at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were flown to Uruguay for resettlement on Sunday, the latest step in a slow-moving push by President Barack Obama's administration to close the facility.
An American, a Briton and a South African were among several hostages Yemeni forces sought to free from al Qaeda this week, the defense ministry said on its website, describing a raid that a U.S. defense official said also involved U.S. special forces.
Yemen's new Shi'ite Muslim powerbrokers sent fighters towards an al Qaeda stronghold on Wednesday, raising the possibility of clashes between the politically ascendant Houthi movement and the hardline Sunni Muslims of the militant network.
Yemen's president named the country's U.N. envoy as prime minister on Monday in a move welcomed by the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi group which controls the capital, signaling an easing in the country's prolonged political crisis.
Yemen's new Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak quit his post early on Thursday hours after the Houthi militia called for mass protests against the "foreign interference" they said was behind his appointment.
Hundreds of Yemenis demonstrated in Sanaa on Sunday demanding that Houthi rebels who had seized control of the capital last week leave, a day after the Shi'ite Muslim fighters attacked the home of the intelligence chief.
The United States told its citizens in Yemen to leave and said it was reducing the number of U.S. government staff there due to political unrest and fears of a possible military escalation.
A United Nations Security Council committee is considering requests by the United States and France to blacklist more than a dozen foreign extremist fighters, fundraisers and recruiters linked to Islamist militant groups in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tunisia and Yemen.
Yemen's Shi'ite Muslim rebels signed an agreement with other political parties on Sunday to form a more inclusive government after rebels advanced on major state institutions in the capital Sanaa, largely unopposed by troops and security forces.
The shutdown of many U.S. embassies throughout the Muslim world was triggered by an intercepted secret message between al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawari and his deputy in Yemen about plans for a major terror attack
