Brig. Gen. Ahmed bin Hasan Asiri, consultant at the minister of defense's office and spokesman of the Coalition forces, stressed today that when the coalition forces are formed due to political directives of the coalition states, they are fully aware of their responsibilities towards the Yemeni people and the security and safety in the region. In today's daily briefing, which he held at Riyadh airbase, Brig. Asiri confirmed that 'one of the most important of these responsibilities is the human side', pointing out that the newspapers and the media outlets dealt with, during the past few days, the issues of evacuating foreigners from Yemen and facilitating humanitarian assistance for the Yemeni people. Brig. Asiri highlighted that the command already called, since the first day, all sides to communicate with the work teams and the official bodies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition states to facilitate their measurements (of evacuation). There are logical reasons to facilitate relief works and foreigners' evacuation procedures, he said, confirming that these works don not interfere with other operations underway, at the same locations, consequently, it would not jeopardize them, however, these relief and evacuation works are verified to be sure that they are moving on the right path and being delivered to the pertinent people, not the terrorist groups, similarly and coincidently taking place to be sure that they are nationals not loyal to Houthi militia commanders. These are normal measurements, as there was contacts with a number of countries which announced willingness to evacuee their nationals, systematically in co-ordination with the coalition command, pointing to the items echoed by the media outlets are not accurate, because of the lack of factual information, adding that the coalition command is proud and to its pleasure to provide media men with these information, he said. Evacuation is taking place through coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other parties with interest, emphasizing that the coalition command constituted today a committee to accelerate the process for only recognized humanitarian organizations, to shut the door in the face of non-recognized ones, Assiri affirmed, asking media men to be in contact with this committee on the numbers shown, in addition to a dedicated email on the Ministry of Defense website, for online follow up of the process. Task Teams at the ministry are in contact with legal as well as humanitarian authorities to be ascertained of carrying their missions, out, Assiri confirmed, drawing the attention to the falsehood of news reported by some news agencies of hindrance of Red Cross missions, reiterating that its flights are running as set for Sunday and that there are no stalling, at all. He made clear that some change has been made by the Red Cross, itself, related to shipments delivery, changing of spots and the stations departure of which the aircrafts will take off from. Brig. Asiri said the foreigners who were evacuated since the start of operations are from Russia, India, Algeria, Indonesia and Pakistan while there are still scheduled flights for tomorrow and after tomorrow for states and non-governmental organizations, UNICEF, China, Djibouti, Egypt and Sudan.' 'The Red Cross will provide two relief aircraft heading for Yemen and the time of arrival was identified. The requests of the United Nations, Germany, the European Union, Pakistan, Canada, Jordan and Iraq are under procedure either because they did not identify a point of the aircraft's arrival or do not specify a date of arrival,' Asiri added. Brig. Asiri stressed that some Arab countries desired to implement evacuation to Jazan Airport by land and from there to their states. 'The foreigners are to be evacuated to Jazan then a country determines an appropriate way to take them to their countries,' he added, calling upon countries and non-governmental organizations to respect and comply with the time set by the coalition forces in order to ensure evacuation process under safe circumstances. Brig. Asiri said 'we communicated with the Red Cross which specified a flight and time,' pointing out that the coalition is found only to serve and rescue the Yemeni people. Brig. Asiri stressed that the evacuation process has three goals, political until the circumstances are appropriate, military to be implemented in accordance with the safety of the aircrafts' crew and reaching to the right people, confirming that the Houthi militias at most of the time are disrupting action at the airports because they are controlling the airports until now. Asiri added that the coalition forces continue to drop logistic support for the People Committees and members of the Yemeni resistance in Aden. 'The situation is quiet now. Some elements of the Houthi militias are found in specific areas,' he added, pointing out existence of communications with the People's Committees. He stressed that the air operations in Aden are continuing at the same pace, pointing out that the weather was very bad yesterday.'The basic standard in air operations is to be accurate of targeting objectives. Therefore, the coalition forces did not carry out many operations during the night yesterday. The forces attacked ammunition stores in the Yemeni territories,' Asiri said. With regard to land operations carried out by the Houthi militias against the members of ground forces and border guard, Brig. Asiri confirmed existence of sporadic clashes which resulted yesterday in martyrdom of two members of the board guard and light injuries, drawing attention to a continuation of the land forces and border guards to target these elements, ' the nature of the area is very difficult and rugged as they are moving in small groups and holed up in caves and mountains. Some mountainous sites have been destroyed,' Asiri added. With regard to naval operations, Brig. Asiri stressed a continuation of the operations pursuing movements of coming ships in the territorial waters around the ports of Yemen in order to make sure that these vessels do not carry cargo or supply for these militias. Asiri added that the coalition forces continue to drop logistic support for the People Committees and members of the Yemeni resistance in Aden. 'The situation is quiet now. Some elements of the Houthi militias are found in specific areas,' he added, pointing out existence of communications with the People's Committees. He stressed that the air operations in Aden are continuing at the same pace, pointing out that the weather was very bad yesterday.'The basic standard in air operations is to be accurate of targeting objectives. Therefore, the coalition forces did not carry out many operations during the night yesterday. The forces attacked ammunition stores in the Yemeni territories,' Asiri said. With regard to land operations carried out by the Houthi militias against the members of ground forces and border guard, Brig. Asiri confirmed existence of sporadic clashes which resulted yesterday in martyrdom of two members of the board guard and light injuries, drawing attention to a continuation of the land forces and border guards to target these elements, ' the nature of the area is very difficult and rugged as they are moving in small groups and holed up in caves and mountains. Some mountainous sites have been destroyed,' Asiri added. With regard to naval operations, Brig. Asiri stressed a continuation of the operations pursuing movements of coming ships in the territorial waters around the ports of Yemen in order to make sure that these vessels do not carry cargo or supply for these militias. In response to a question, Asiri said the coalition forces have checked the activities of Al-Qaeda in their stronghold of Al-Makalla, citing their storming of prisons of the city and setting free the prisoners yesterday. He added that the forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have paved the way for Al-Qaeda, allowing them to control banks and government offices and install check points. The coalition forces are currently assessing the situation. He denied press reports that Russian aircraft have airlifted former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh and dropped supplies and arms to Houthi militia's in Yemen, confirming that all evacuation operations including Russian dependents were done under the supervision of the coalition forces. Such information is either wrong or not accurate, he added. He said the objective of the coalition operation is to achieve geopolitical goals, including the restoration of legitimacy, including the legitimate president, and bringing about peace, security and stability to Yemen and not dealing with persons who might have committed crimes against the people of Yemen. Such trials will be held by the legitimate government later, he stated. Asked to verify requests by the Red Cross to have the war halted for 24 hours to pave the way for humanitarian relief works, Asiri said whenever the political leadership orders a stop, we are going to carry out the order. But so far, the coalition is aware that relief and humanitarian work is part of its mission.
