Fighting between government forces and Shiite rebels has Yemen on the brink of a coup, though both sides agreed to a cease-fire on Monday after clashes had reached the vicinity of the presidential palace in Sanaa, the country's capital, according to the Associated Press.

The rebels, known as Houthis, have long controlled Yemen's north; but last year, they began to expand into the rest of the country, and in September they captured Sanaa, the news service detailed.

Their attack on the palace and a military area south of it puts President Abed Rabbo Mansour in immediate danger as the leader lives in a nearby residence, around which additional soldiers and tanks were deployed.

The clashes between security forces and rebels have spread across downtown Sanaa, Al Jazeera reported. The government, meanwhile, seems to be preparing for a likely overthrow; its information minister, Nadia Sakkaf, anticipated that there could be a "new Yemen" by the end of the day.

Sakkaf told the AP that the fighting "is a step toward a coup and it is targeting the state's legitimacy."

Yemen is the Arab world's poorest country and a stronghold of what the United States considers the most dangerous branch of the terror organization al-Qaida, the news service detailed.

The group, which styles itself "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," has claimed responsibility for the recent massacre at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which ended in the deaths of 12 journalists and policemen and caused outrage throughout France and allied nations.

The Houthis, meanwhile, see themselves as enemies of al-Qaida, the Yemeni government and the United States alike. A Shiite group thought to have ties to Iran, they support former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ousted in a 2012 deal after Arab Spring protests, the AP noted.

Hakim al-Masmari, the editor in chief of the Yemen Post, told Al Jazeera that the new clashes were more intense than the fighting that allowed the Houthis to take control of the capital in September.

"This chaos is the first of its kind," al-Masmari told the news channel.