Egypt Shuts Embassy in Yemen over 'Bad' Security

Egypt shut its embassy in Sanaa and recalled all its staff Monday due to deteriorating security, state media said, joining a diplomatic exodus since Shiite militia seized the Yemeni capital.

Long on the front line of the US war against Al-Qaeda, Yemen has descended into chaos since the Shiite Huthi militia swept into Sanaa from their mountainous northern stronghold last year.

"The Egyptian diplomatic mission in Sanaa headed by Ambassador Youssef al-Sharqawi returned to Cairo on Monday due to the bad security situation in Yemen," the official MENA news agency reported.

"The Egyptian embassy in Sanaa was closed after the departure of the mission," it added.

The Huthis overran Sanaa in September and installed a "presidential council" last month in a move widely condemned as a "coup".

Since then, Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Japan and Turkey have all shuttered their embassies in Sanaa.

A day after escaping house arrest in the Huthi-controlled capital, President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi on Sunday labelled the militia takeover as a "coup" and declared all their measures "null and illegitimate".