Militants loyal to Yemen's President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi take their positions next to his supporters, in Taiz, Yemen, March, 30, 2015. At least 45 people have been killed in north Yemen after an airstrike hit a camp for internally displaced people, whilst a Saudi-led coalition continued to strike Houthi targets around the country for a fifth day, the humanitarian agency, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said. Photo by Anees Mahyoub/UPI |
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SANAA, Yemen, April 10 (UPI) -- A lawsuit has been filed by 41 U.S. citizens against the State Department and Defense Department for allegedly failing to evacuate them from Yemen.
The suit, filed in Washington, D.C., by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, seeks to compel the government to use all available resources to evacuate the stranded U.S. citizens, including "deploying military ships, vessels and airplanes and/or contracting with private commercial ship liners and airplanes."
Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon has yet issued a public response to the lawsuit.
On Thursday, State Department acting Deputy Spokesperson Jeff Rathke acknowledged "we are aware of some American citizens who remain in Yemen."
"We remain in contact through a variety of means to advise American citizens in Yemen about the opportunities that present themselves for people to leave, if they choose to. Just yesterday, we put out two rather detailed... messages to American citizens in Yemen about opportunities to depart. So that is, of course, something we remain focused on. And we are monitoring the situation in Yemen closely because, of course, protecting American citizens is a top priority for us."
It is unclear how many U.S. citizens are currently in Yemen.
The State Department has set up a website portal to help identify U.S. citizens in Yemen. The AADC and CAIR, along with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, launched their own website, www.StuckInYemen.com, to help with identification.
U.S. embassy operations in Yemen were suspended in February and U.S. citizens were encouraged to depart "while commercial transportation was available." Remaining U.S. government personnel withdrew from Yemen in March "due to the deteriorating security situation."
On March 31, Jamal al-Labani, a 45-year-old Yemeni-American from California, was killed by mortar fire in Yemen while walking to the home of his wife and daughter in Aden.
A State Department travel warning updated April 3 advises "U.S. citizens to defer travel to Yemen and for those U.S. citizens currently living in or visiting Yemen to depart."
U.S. citizens remaining in Yemen have been advised by State to "make their own determination as to whether conditions are safe enough for them to travel" and provided information about evacuation opportunities organized by other countries, many of which expired Thursday.
