People gather near the rubble of houses destroyed by Saudi air strikes near the airport in Sana’a. Photograph: Hani Mohammed/AP
US citizens trying desperately to leave war-torn Yemen fear they have been left to their fate by their own government as fighting escalates between rebel fighters and Washington’s allies.
Saudi-led air strikes against Shia Houthi rebels have prompted urgent warnings about dangers to civilians, and several countries have evacuated their civilians, including China, India, Pakistan and Somalia.
Related: Crisis in Yemen – the Guardian briefing
But the US has not followed suit, despite having three navy ships in nearby waters, including the frigate USS Simpson and the destroyer USS Sterett in or near the Gulf of Aden.
Until recently, Mokhtar Alkanshali was in the port city of Aden, from where he could see those ships. The 26-year-old San Franciscan was in Yemen to work on a project with coffee farmers – partially supported by the government’s foreign development arm USAid – when a Houthi offensive forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee the country.
Last week, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of mainly Sunni Arab Gulf states launched a counteroffensive against the Houthis – leaving ordinary Yemenis and other nationals caught between the two sides.
Alkanshali told the Guardian he had just “escaped with my life” from armed militiamen combating the Houthis and their allies, supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“If they hear me speak English, I will be in immediate danger,” Alkanshali said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Major Roger Cabiness, said he was unaware of any orders received by the military to aid an evacuation.
The State Department, whose representatives would not speak on the record, evacuated all its staff from the country after halting embassy operations on 11 February – but indicated that US citizens still in Yemen were on their own.
“We have no current plans to evacuate private US citizens from Yemen. We continue to watch the situation closely,” a State Department official told the Guardian.
A US citizen currently imprisoned in a Yemeni security jail in Sana’a, Sharif Mobley, told his attorneys on Monday that warplanes – presumably Saudi jets – were bombing his prison and he feared for his life.
The State Department advises US personnel to find private travel out of the country, but options are few. Saudi planes are enforcing a no-fly zone, and the roads are treacherous.
Several Americans have travelled from the capital city of Sana’a to Aden, not far from the US navy’s three ships, in the hope of rescue. One of them is Nasser Summer, a 20-year-old senior at Sarah Lawrence College who had travelled to Yemen to visit family. Summer, who recently fled Sana’a, said the port was closed and under a blockade by US ally Saudi Arabia.
“It’s very dangerous. The house is surrounded by air strikes,” Summer said by phone. She estimated perhaps 300 Americans are, like her and her family, stranded in Yemen. The State Department said it cannot estimate how many Americans are in Yemen.
Summer said she is separated from her father, who is stuck in Turkey, while she and her mother tend to her four siblings, who range in age from three to 16. All of them hold US passports.
The civilian toll in the week-old Saudi-led assault is already raising alarm. Saudi warplanes struck a refugee camp on Monday. A Unicef statement issued on Tuesday said that at least 62 children have been killed and 30 injured.
The Obama administration has offered logistics, intelligence and mid-air refuelling aid to the Saudis’ coalition. On Friday, the US navy and air force rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their F-15 during a mission over Yemen.
Related: US man in Yemeni prison smuggles phone call: 'I don't know if I'll make it out alive'
But Americans fearing for their relatives in Yemen have been alarmed by their government’s abandonment.
Sylvia Muchinsky, Summer’s New York-based aunt, worried that US citizens who have sought succor in Aden will soon be in the crosshairs as the battle spreads to the port.
Houthi fighters were reported on Wednesday to have reached the center of the city, a bastion of support for Hadi.
“It’s the last standing ground. Houthis will target American nationals in retaliation for American logistical support,” Muchinsky said.
US Muslim civil rights groups, including the Council on American Islamic Relations (Cair), have called on the Obama administration to get stranded Americans out of Yemen. Dawud Walid, executive director of Cair’s Michigan branch, said calls and emails have been coming into his office from Americans afraid for their relatives.
He contrasted US drone strikes against Americans in Yemen, ostensibly carried out in the name of protecting US citizens from terrorism, with the apparent indifference toward saving Americans left behind in the conflict.
“It does strike as highly problematic that our country has been involved in numerous drone strikes, including the extrajudicial killing of two Americans, yet we have American citizens stranded by Saudi bombing that we are giving logistical support to,” Walid said.
“I would think American citizens would be extremely more valuable to Americans than Saudi pilots,” he continued.
The State Department official told the Guardian: “The protection and safety of US citizens overseas are among our top priorities.”
With no evacuation in sight, Alkanshali is hoping for a ceasefire to enable him to leave Yemen. “I feel like my country has abandoned me,” he said.
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