After a six-hour gunfight, armed insurgents from the Houthi group took over the special forces army base in Sanaa, the capital city of Yemen. The Houthis began shelling the base late last night with heavy artillery. At least 10 people were killed.

The special forces had been trained and equipped by the US military to be an elite counterterrorism unit. The world has watched with increased anxiety as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has become the most powerful branch of the global terror organization thanks to the political turmoil of Yemen.

The US created the special forces unit during the reign of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He was ousted in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring. After several bloody months of protest, Saleh finally agreed to hand over power to his deputy, current president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Hadi was forced to flee Sanaa for the southern city of Aden earlier this week.

The Houthi group took over Sanaa in September 2014 and began to lay siege on the President’s heavily fortified residential palace in January 2015. The now-dominant rebel group says that Hadi had lost his legitimacy to govern and was considered to be a fugitive from justice. Hadi resigned and has been under house arrest for the past month. In his absence, the political uncertainty has worsened.

On Tuesday, Hadi officially retracted his resignation prompting his flight to Aden and the siege on the military base.

The Houthi group currently in power only represent a Shia minority from the North. The majority Sunni Yemenis in the South do not recognize their authority. The country has been steadily descending into ever greater chaos, which provides ideal territory for Al Qaeda.

Many wonder if the UN-lead talks to resolve Yemen’s power crisis peacefully will amount to anything.