Report: US secretly moving Jews out of Yemen

The US State Department has been involved in the covert relocation of Yemeni Jews to the United States, a report says.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, about 60 Yemeni Jews have so far been moved to the US.

The report added that the first group, consisting of 17 people, arrived in New York on July 8, after leaving the Yemeni capital of Sana'a on a flight for Frankfurt.

The Journal added that about 100 other Yemeni Jews may also be transferred to the United States, while a number of others could be flown to Israel.

US officials and the leaders of the Yemeni Jewish community cited what they called "mounting harassment" against the community members as the reason behind the operation.

The paper also said that the Yemeni government had agreed to issue exit permits for Jewish families at the request of the United States.

"It was the embassy's view, and the [State] Department concurred, that because of their vulnerability, we should consider them for resettlement," a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration told the Journal.