Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri announces achievement of Determination Storm's goals,
beginning of Operation Hope Restore
http://www.spa.gov.sa/English/print.php?id=1352526

Riyadh, Rajab 2, 1436, Apr 21, 2015, SPA -- Brig. Gen. Ahmed bin Hasan
Asiri, consultant at the minister of defense's office and spokesman of the
Coalition Forces, stressed that Operation Determination Strom came upon a
request by Yemeni President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi which was presented to
the Arab countries as a response to the request of the Yemeni people and
government for supporting the legitimacy and protecting the Yemeni
legitimacy and citizens against the practices of the Huthi militias and the
ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

During the daily press briefing held today at Riyadh Air Base, Brig. Asiri
said that the political process was launched to achieve specific military
objectives of this campaign which are protection of the Yemeni legitimacy
and deterring the Huthi operations from continuing operations threatening
the Yemeni citizens and destroying its military capabilities which they
seized from the Yemeni army and which were accumulated during the past years
as well as preventing the Huthi militias from threatening the kingdom and
neighboring countries.

He added that Determination Storm focused on specific objectives, including
controlling the airspace in Yemen and preventing the Houthi militias and
their supporters from using the air forces or any other air means against
the coalition operations, destroying anti-air defense operations controlled
by the Huthi militias and destroying the command and control centers from
which operations are run, stressing that the coalition forces controlled the
airspace in the first fifteen minutes of the operation.

Brig Asiri explained that the operations continued against axes of ballistic
missiles, logistics, supply, movements, ammunition stores, maintenance and
manufacturing primitive workshops that they had, the sea embargo and
prevention of ground operations. He stressed preventing the Huthi militias
from entering and controlling the city of Aden as the operations were
carried out with high precision and careful planning. He said that the
operations were successful and without injuries with respect to air
operations with the exception of one plane that faced a technical glitch
that was announced at the time of the accident.

Brig Asiri added that the operations were punctual and hit their targets in
terms of the volume of sorties carried out, pointing out that during the
past two days, coalition forces carried out 2,300 sorties, and today, we
confirm reaching 2415 sorties whose goal was to implement the air campaign
in a focused manner and setting the goals that were achieved accurately on
the ground, pointing out that the announcement of the command of the
alliance today to end the Determination Storm's operations came at the
request of the Yemeni president who felt that the main objectives of the
Determination Storm have been achieved on the ground and that the legitimacy
was protected and that the Yemeni citizens are no longer in jeopardy as they
were in the early days.

He said that the Huthi militias lost a large part of its potential and we
can assure that it will not be a reason for threatening neighboring
countries or Yemeni citizens, indicating that the Yemeni government will
take all procedures for the continuation of restoring hope to the Yemeni
citizens through Operation Hope Restore which will start at the beginning of
tomorrow.

He added that operations regarding Operation Hope Restore will begin to
restore hope to the Yemeni people, emphasize that the Yemeni government will
work to support their presence on the ground of Yemen and continue towards
building a secure and stable Yemen. Regarding future operations in the
military part, the command of the coalition through Operation Hope Restore
will prevent the Huthi militias from moving and carrying out any operations
inside Yemen.

He added, 'We are targeting operational moves of the Huthi militias to
prevent them from harming citizens or actually changing the reality on the
ground, noting that these operations will continue to protect the civilian
citizens from the oppression of the Huthi militias if these militias tried
to return to the practices that they were exercising prior to the beginning
of Operation Determination Storm. On top of these tasks are support for
relief, evacuation, humanitarian work in Yemen, facilitating their potential
operations through continued humanitarian and relief work and evacuations
that we have already announced. We will emphasize their duties today in
continuing to manage and coordinate the work of evacuation, relief and
humanitarian operations.

Brig Asiri confirmed that the operations will continue with respect to
humanitarian and relief work and evacuation when the leadership of the
coalition feels that there is a need for military action to achieve the
humanitarian and relief work and evacuation.

Brigadier Asiri explained that all operations that had been carried out
today were in support for the work of the People's Committees and resistance
in Saada, Aden, Sana'a and Hodeidah, stressing that the continuation of the
work in achieving the goals and management on the part of the command of the
coalition to protect civilians in the city of Aden and target any
operational attempts of the Huthi militias.

He stressed the continuation of work on the ground level to protect the
southern borders of the kingdom by the Saudi land forces and the Saudi
border guards in the protection, carrying out their duties and responding to
any attempts to influence the safety and security of the borders in addition
to implementing the sea embargo on the Yemeni territorial waters and ports
by the coalition command through visiting and inspecting ships to make sure
that they are consistent with UN resolution 2216, which prevents arming the
Huthi militias or any country or party from arming the ousted President Ali
Abdullah Saleh and the groups loyal to him.

The coalition spokesman noted that Operation Determination Storm culminated
in success highlighting unity of all countries participating in the
coalition and the precision of planning and coordination and courageous
fighters of the air, sea and ground forces and border guards, indicating
that the final warehouse that could be controlled by the Huthis has been
destroyed, and pointing out that the work will continue when it is proved to
the command of the coalition that these militias are more or less trying to
target its operations through the operation to restore hope to Yemen.

He said that the evacuation and humanitarian action cell will continue to
carry out their duties to achieve the third goal of Hope Restore operations
through communication on the numbers and site, pointing out that everyone is
trying to bring hope to the Yemeni citizens, restore security and stability
to Yemen and achieve the goals of Operation Hope Restore.

Then, al-Asiri answered reporters' questions and explained that the command
of the coalition began its operations upon a formal request from the Yemeni
government and ended them at the request of the Yemeni government which saw
that the targets set for the operations have been achieved and to allow for
the Yemeni government to begin restoring hope to the Yemenis.

Brigadier Asiri that the Security Council resolution is a strong message
from the international community that the situation in Yemen is not a field
for media speculations, and that Determination Storm is application of this
resolution and support for the legitimacy of the Yemeni government,
stressing that the Kingdom is able to protect itself and will not be dragged
by media rhetoric and provocations adding that that the goal of
Determination Storm is the restoration of security and stability to Yemen
and the region.

The spokesman of the coalition forces indicated that the role of the
National Guard is a major role in the security and stability of the kingdom
and has a supporting role for the armed forces and is taking part in the
defense of the northern borders and its deployment now is normal according
to the concept of operations in the use of military forces in the kingdom,
pointing out that the National Guard is participating with the Armed Forces
and the Ministry of the Interior in playing the required roles to do the
duty of defending the southern border of the kingdom.

Brigadier Asiri stressed that the end of Determination Storm and the start
of the of Hope Restore are a combination of political and diplomatic action
and military action, pointing out that the command of the coalition is
concerned with military action, which is to prevent the Huthi militias from
carrying out any military operations.

--SPA
23:37 LOCAL TIME 20:37 GMT