Shiite rebels remain outside Yemen President’s house

SANAA, Jan 22 (AP): Heavily armed Shiite rebels remain stationed outside the Yemeni president's house and the palace in Sanaa, despite a deal calling for their immediate withdrawal to end a violent standoff.

Just before midday on Thursday, and more than 14 hours after the deal was struck, an Associated Press reporter saw the Shiite rebel gunmen deployed outside the house of President Abed Rabbo Mansour, located west of the capital.

There was also no sign that the president's chief of staff, who was kidnapped on Saturday, has been released - which was also part of the deal.

The militiamen are positioned outside the presidential palace, which they stormed Wednesday after intense clashes.

Reuters report adds: Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, an official with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen, has urged Muslims to carry out lone-wolf strikes in Western countries two weeks after his group said it was behind the Paris attacks, SITE Monitoring reported.

"If he is capable to wage individual jihad in the Western countries that fight Islam... then that is better and more harmful," he told the group's media wing when asked if Muslims should quit the West to live in Islamic states, SITE reported.

Ansi added that AQAP had worked to strike Western targets outside Yemen, something that led Washington to regard the group as al Qaeda's most active wing after it plotted foiled attacks to bring down international airliners.

"We have made efforts in external work, and the enemy knows the danger of that... We are preparing and lurking for the enemies of Allah. We incite the believers to do that," he said.