U.S. officials told NBC News late Monday that they don’t plan to evacuate the American embassy in Yemen's capital, where government soldiers and Shiite rebels fought near the presidential palace and a military before agreeing to a cease-fire.
The rebels seized Yemen state television and its official SABA news agency, Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf told The Associated Press. Nine people were killed and 67 injured in the fighting in Sanaa.
"This is a step toward a coup and it is targeting the state's legitimacy," Sakkaf told AP.
But the two sides agreed to a cease-fire after holding day-long negotiations, on Monday.
The strife comes as the U.S. and its allies fight al Qaeda’s Yemeni operation, which said it was responsible for the Jan. 7 attack on a Paris-based satirical magazine in which 13 people were killed.
There was no imminent threat to Americans inside the embassy, U.S. military officials said. It would be “more likely and safer” for any Americans to leave the capital of Sana'a on a commercial flight, said one senior U.S. official, who noted that the military had not stepped up its alert level.
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— Jim Miklaszewski and The Associated Press
