U.S. says no time table set for returning troops to Yemen

The United States has no time frame set for sending its troops back to a "dangerous" Yemen who were evacuated over the weekend, but has "assets and resources" needed to cope with the situation, the White House said on Monday.

"I don't have a time frame to share with you from here," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a daily news briefing, acknowledging "a lot of important work" needed to be done for the return of U.S. forces.

The withdrawal of some 100 U.S. troops, including commandos, from the Al Anad air base in southern Yemen on Saturday, a move that came after the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula seized the city of al-Houta nearby, was seen as a setback to Washington's counterterrorism efforts in the region.

Yemen, an Arab country in transition following the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in November 2011, has been brought to the brink of a civil and sectarian war.

The extremist Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for four suicide bombings rocking Yemen's capital city of Sanaa on Friday that left at least 137 dead, adding to the violence and chaos ensuing from the ongoing fighting between forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels, who have seized Sanaa and several provinces.

The United States, which closed its embassy in Sanaa and withdrew some staff last month, announced on Sunday the evacuation of its remaining personnel from Yemen.

"The situation in Yemen is a dangerous one," Earnest said, noting "There continues to be ongoing security cooperation between the United States and the national security infrastructure of the Hadi government."

"The United States continues to have assets and resources in the region that will allow us to take steps where necessary to continue to apply significant pressure to extremist targets and to keep the American people safe," he added. "But it is true that that coordination would be more effective if there were U.S. personnel in the country."

In his first speech since fleeing to the southern port city of Aden in February, Hadi on Saturday denounced the rebels' occupation as "a coup against constitutional legitimacy" and declared Aden as the country's "temporary capital."

Both the Houthi rebels and the president had reportedly deployed a large number of troops in Yemen's southern provinces. Endite