Yemen rebels gain ground, al Qaeda gains "space"

SANAA, Yemen -- Yemen's Shiite rebels pressed ahead Wednesday with their power grab in the capital, Sanaa, capturing a military base that houses ballistic missiles overlooking the city and posting guards outside the president's home only a day after they shelled the residence.

The developments further erode the powers of U.S.-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was unharmed during the shelling Tuesday but remained inside the house. The embattled Hadi appears to have run out of options amid what some have described as a coup by the Houthis.

U.S. Navy ships were on standby to evacuate American Embassy workers from Sanaa should the State Department deem the security situation too dire.

The Houthis are seen by their critics as a proxy of Shiite Iran -- charges they deny -- and are believed to be allied with, if not directed by, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted in a 2012 deal after Arab Spring protests. Some Yemen experts believe Saleh, who remains in Yemen, is orchestrating the Houthi uprising as a way to try and regain power for his family in the country he ruled for more than 30 years.

The chaos which has engulfed Yemen since Salah stepped down allowed al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (APAP), the terror network's franchise based in the country and the group which claimed responsibility for the massacre on Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper in Paris, to flourish in the south.

The Houthis have vowed to eradicate AQAP, and have battled the group, but they are also hostile to the U.S. Their official slogan is "Death to Israel. Death to America."

CBS News senior security contributor Mike Morrell, a former deputy director at the CIA, said on "CBS This Morning" that the risks with the Houthi rebels' advance is two-fold; it could give Iran greater influence in the already fraught Middle East, and the fighting is distracting Yemen's government from the fight against AQAP.

"What's really dangerous," said Morrell, "is that al Qaeda is now going to have space, because nobody is going to be focusing on it as these two groups fight, al Qaeda is going to have the space to grow and pose threats."

Early Wednesday, the rebels seized the country's largest missile base on a hilltop above Sanaa, consolidating their grip over the city, which they seized in September after spreading out from their strongholds in the north.

Meanwhile, a lull settled over Sanaa after two days of fierce gunbattles between government forces and the Houthis during which the rebels swept into the presidential palace and looted its weapons depots, took over the TV building and the country's official news agency, and besieged the house of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah.

The rebels' leader, Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, described the dramatic escalation in an address to the nation broadcast late Tuesday as a "revolutionary" move aimed at forcing Hadi to implement a U.N.-brokered deal that effectively grants the Houthis a bigger share of power.

Yemeni military officials said there was no resistance as the Houthis took the base housing ballistic missiles in western Sanaa. The rebels demanded that the commanders hand over control of the base to them, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.

In his speech, al-Houthi listed as his main demand the shakeup of a commission tasked with writing a review of a new, draft constitution to ensure bigger representation for his group. The draft has proposed a federation of six regions, something the Houthis reject.

The Houthis are a group within the Shiite sect of Zaydism, whose followers make up a third of Yemen's population of 25 million and live mainly in the north. The rebels are believed to have the backing of Shiite powerhouse Iran, a claim they reject. Sunni Yemenis live mostly in the country's south and make up two thirds of the population.

The chaos in Sanaa prompted the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to condemn the violence and call for a lasting cease-fire. In a statement approved by all 15 members, the Council asserted that Hadi "is the legitimate authority" in Yemen.

However, deep uncertainty loomed over the city and Hadi's future. Outside his house, security guards that previously manned a post made up of sandbags and metal barricades had disappeared and were replaced by Houthis, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, standing at the gates. Other rebels stood outside shuttered shops or monitored traffic.

Analysts say the Houthi sweep could further fracture Yemen, and incite other disenchanted and rival groupings across the Sunni-Shiite divide.

Also Wednesday, authorities in Aden, the regional capital of southern Yemen, closed the airport there, the country's second-largest, in protest to what their local authorities described as Houthi "coup" against "national sovereignty."

Airport chief in the port city of Aden, Tarek Abdu, said the shutdown went into effect at 7 a.m. Wednesday and would last "until further notice," following orders from the governor.

Local authorities also closed the port, a major hub.