MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Gas station owner Jamal al-Labani has been identified as the first US citizen believed to have been killed in airstrikes conducted by a Saudi-led coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen, CNN reports.
Family members told CNN that al-Labani had been trying to get back to his home in Hayward, California, since February.
"When he got [to Aden], after a few weeks he noticed things were starting to get bad and then the [US] Embassy closed," al-Labani's cousin, Mohammed Alazzani, told CNN on Sunday.
According to Alazzani, al-Labani was going to try to cross the border into Oman and fly to Egypt two days before he was killed.
"People were hoping things would get better, but they only got worse and worse," Alazzani said, explaining that the airports shut down and his cousin never made it back home.
A US State Department spokesperson told CNN in a statement that there are currently no plans to evacuate private US citizens from Yemen. They are being encouraged to leave Yemen using "commercial transportation" or take advantage of evacuation assistance provided by foreign governments.
Saudi Arabia and several other countries formed a coalition and started carrying out airstrikes against Houthis on March 25, following Hadi's request for military aid.
Over 500 people, including 90 children, have been killed and about 1,700 were wounded in Yemen in the past two weeks, according to UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.
Russia has evacuated over 500 people, including foreign nationals, from Yemen in the past few days.
