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Houthi rebels have taken at least four Americans hostage in Yemen, The Washington Post reported Saturday. According to the report, three of the hostages were working in the private sector. The fourth is a dual citizen of Yemen and the US, whose job is unknown. An unnamed US official in the report said that a number of rescues operation have been attempted and failed.

The rebel group that has seized power in Yemen has taken at least four U.S. citizens prisoner, according to U.S. officials who said that efforts to secure the Americans’ release have faltered. One of the prisoners had been cleared for release in recent days only to have that decision reversed by members of the Houthi rebellion that toppled the U.S.-backed government earlier this year and now controls most levers of power in Yemen.

[Snip]...But Marie Harf, Queen of Nonsense, insists that the carrier group (carriers never travel alone, by the way, they keep missile frigates, destroyers, Aegis cruisers, tenders, and a few submarines around for security) is only there to “ensure the shipping lanes remain open and safe” — and “not to do anything in terms of those Iranian ships.” Any suggestion to the contrary is “blatantly untrue– so this discreet movement of U.S. assets is for a discreet purpose,” Harf said. To paraphrase what Teddy Roosevelt might say: W.T.F!?

Saudi-led coalition jets have bombed Houthi rebels in Yemen's third city of Taiz, hours after announcing the end of a military campaign against them. The strikes followed the fall of the base outside Taiz of an army unit loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Fighting was also reported in the second city of Aden, Lahj's provincial capital Huta, and the town of Daleh. On Tuesday, Riyadh declared its month-long campaign, which sought to restore the president, had achieved its goals. But it warned that it would continue to take action against the Houthis as needed. The UN says at least...

Yemen remains unstable and much more work needs to be done in the region, despite a declared halt to the Saudi-led bombing campaign in the country, the White House said on Wednesday. "Obviously, the job is not done," Jen Psaki, White House communications director, said on CNN. Tuesday's announcement by Saudi Arabia that it would end its campaign of air strikes against the Iranian-allied Houthis drew positive responses from the White House and Tehran, as well as fresh calls for peace talks and for humanitarian aid. Saudi Arabia said its month-old campaign against the Houthis, who had seized large areas...

The Saudi-led coalition will now begin a new phase, titled 'Operation Restoring Hope', according to the statement of the Saudi defense ministry. Saudi-led coalition operations in Yemen are now entering a political phase. The airstrikes have eliminated all threats against the kingdom and the neighboring countries through the destruction of the heavy arms and ballistic missiles that were seized by the Houthi militias and pro-Saleh forces, according to a statement by the defense ministry. A coalition spokesman said the decision to end operation Firmness Storm followed a request from the Yemeni government.

A Saudi-led coalition will end "Operation Decisive Storm" -- its nearly monthlong airstrike campaign in Yemen -- by the end of Tuesday, and a new undertaking called "Operation Restoring Hope" will begin, Saudi state-run TV reported without immediately elaborating. The aim is to bring back Yemen's "security and stability through establishing a political process," said a statement from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

The Obama administration, while showing willingness to cave in to just about every Iranian demand in the ongoing nuclear negotiations, appears to be flexing its muscles in the Yemen proxy fight between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Navy officials: US warship heads to Yemeni waters to intercept Iranian weapons shipments.

Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S., a key ally of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, had also set up a coordination center in the Sunni Muslim kingdom, whose forces have led an air campaign against the Shi'ite Houthi group which rules most of Yemen. "Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force," he told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh. "As part of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint coordination planning cell in the...

Saudi-led air strikes have failed to reverse the rebels' momentum Houthi militia inched closer Sunday to capturing the port city of Aden, where Saudi-backed forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdel Rabbo Mansour Hadi continue to hold out. The Shi‘ite rebels unleashed artillery barrages on residential areas in the city and targeted a pro-Hadi television station with mortar rounds, forcing it off the air, reports AFP. “There are bodies in the streets, and we can’t get close because there are Houthi snipers on the rooftops. Anything that gets near, they shoot at,” an unidentified medic told Reuters. Houthi militants continue to...

(Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Iran on Thursday of trying to dominate the Middle East and said its efforts have begun annoying Ankara, as well as Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab countries. Turkey earlier said it supports the Saudi-led military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen and called on the militia group and its "foreign supporters" to abandon acts which threaten peace and security in the region. "Iran is trying to dominate the region," said Erdogan, who is due to visit Tehran in early April. "Could this be allowed? This has begun annoying us, Saudi Arabia and the...

Iran demanded an immediate halt to Saudi-led military operations in Yemen on Thursday and said it would make all necessary efforts to control the crisis there, Iranian news agencies reported. Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies on Thursday struck Iran-allied Houthi forces fighting to oust the country's Western-backed president. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV reported a ground offensive with troops from other Muslim states was being prepared.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states launched airstrikes against rebel forces in Yemen’s capital and across the country in defense of what Riyadh called the nation’s legitimate government. The attacks began Thursday morning, hours after Yemen’s president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, fled the southern port city of Aden by boat when Iranian-backed Houthi militants closed in. The decision by Saudi Arabia and the region’s Sunni monarchies to intervene on Mr. Hadi’s behalf raises the stakes in their rivalry with predominantly Shiite Iran, which has raged in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region. The raids also risked further inflaming sectarian...

The Obama administration's senior counterterrorism official acknowledged Thursday that U.S. intelligence was surprised by the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Yemen.

Efforts were underway on a draft Security Council resolution to address the crisis in the Arab world's poorest country. Britain and Jordan were working on a resolution that British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said would be ready "in the next few days." A separate draft resolution by the Gulf Coordination Council of Arab states on the Persian Gulf, obtained by The Associated Press, strongly condemns the Houthis and their seizure of power and demands that they "immediately and unconditionally withdraw their forces from government institutions and from all regions under their control." The draft also demands that the Houthis "return...

Meghan Kelly just reported that Marines were ordered by the state department to remove clips and surrender weapons before leaving the Yemen Embassy. She reports that it is unprecedented, backed up by Jack Keene. Marines under that order are furious.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Marines handed over their remaining weapons to Yemenis at the airport in the capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday before boarding commercial aircraft to leave the country following the closure of the U.S. embassy, the Pentagon said. The Pentagon said the Marines destroyed heavy weapons in their embassy arsenal, including machine guns, before leaving for the airport but remained armed with smaller weapons until the end to ensure a safe exit from the country. "The movement from the embassy to the aircraft required armed Marines," Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said at a briefing. The U.S....