France third nation to leave Yemen as Al Qaeda splinter group pledges IS support

France will close its embassy in Yemen from Feb. 13 due to security concerns and has asked its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible, the embassy said on Wednesday. It is the third nation to pull out of Yemen citing security concerns: both the United States and Britain have closed their embassy and asked citizens to leave the country. The evacuations come as a group of Islamist fighters in Yemen renounced their loyalty to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and pledged allegiance to the head of the Islamic State (IS), according to a Twitter message retrieved by U.S.-based monitoring group SITE.

We announce breaking the pledge of allegiance to the sheikh, the holy warrior and scholar Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri … We pledge to the caliph of the believers Ibrahim bin Awad al-Baghdadi to listen and obey.

Message distributed on Twitter

AQAP is considered the most powerful branch of the global militant network headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri and has previously rejected the authority of Islamic State which has declared a caliphate, or Islamic theocracy, in swathes of Iraq and Syria. State authority in Yemen has unravelled since a Shi’ite Muslim militia formally seized power last week and the Sunni AQAP has sworn to destroy it, stoking fears of sectarian civil war.

Middle East Yemen