ome 20 American citizens were among the 200 evacuated on Wednesday night by two Russian planes from Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition continues bombings. They related their ordeal to RT’s correspondent.

Saudi Arabia declared on Tuesday it had achieved all the goals of its four-week operation ‘Decisive Storm’ and is replacing it with a new one called 'Restoring Hope’. While the Saudi military said it would focus on security and finding a political solution to the crisis from now on, it didn’t stop it from continuing airstrikes against Shiite Houthi rebels. Intensive bombings were reported on Wednesday near the southwestern city of Taiz.

With the threat of violence continuing to loom over Yemen, Russia sent two more planes to evacuate people. They carried some 197 refugees, including 13 citizens of Russia, 80 people from the former Soviet republics like Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Kazakhstan and 104 people from countries including Cuba, Serbia, Columbia and Lebanon.

Also among them were about 20 American citizens, who became stranded in Yemen when the US government announced it had no plans to organize an evacuation.

“There are no plans for a US government-coordinated evacuation of US citizens at this time,” US State Department said in a travel warning in early April, as the Saudi bombing campaign passed its first week.

“We encourage all US citizens to shelter in a secure location until they are able to depart safely. US citizens wishing to depart should do so via commercial transportation options when they become available.”

Department spokesman Jeff Rathke explained that the people trapped in Yemeni violence were there because they had ignored US government’s warnings.

“For more than 15 years the State Department has been advising US citizens to defer travel to Yemen. We have been advising those US citizens who are in Yemen to depart,” he said.

.Left to their own devices, US citizens in Yemen sought the help of private organizations and foreign governments to flee the country. RT’s Murad Gazdiev spoke with some of those who found their way out of the battle zone to the Russian evacuation planes. Some barely managed to reach the airport.

“My cousin contacted us from the US. He got hold of the Russians and then contacted us. We only heard about it yesterday. We went from the village. It’s a five-hour ride. We crossed that bridge. Twenty minutes later a missile hit the bridge we crossed,” Mouhammed Nasser told RT.

Others spent a lot of time desperately trying to find a way out of Yemen.

“I couldn’t make it out. I had to wait. It took me weeks to find a flight out of [the capital] Sanaa. I started calling airlines, agencies, the UN, the Russian embassy,” said Ismail Alafash.

“Americans, they just kept sending us emails,” he added. “They said basically: find your way out.”

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http://rt.com/news/252173-yemen-russia-us-evacuation/