In response to a question, Asiri said the Houthi militias and their Yemeni army defectors who were stationed in Aden before the start of the campaign were using armored vehicles and directly targeting residential areas as well as citizens inside the city of Aden. To this effect, the logistics provided by the coalition forces to citizens and popular committees have contributed to cause a wedge in the force balance on the ground. Everybody knows that the Houthi militias have stormed the presidential palace in Aden and now they are present inside the districts on the outskirts of the city, Asiri said, adding that work is continuing with the popular committees according to prescribed plans and precision of logistic volleying operations, a move he mentioned as at its beginnings. Asked about distributing relief items to needy people in other cities other than Aden, Asiri welcomed any distress for relief assistance, vowing that such air-dropped items would not fall in the hands of the Houthi militias or rebel groups, and noting the importance of securing the city of Aden and other Yemeni cities. On halting the airstrikes for 24 hours to pave the way for humanitarian assistance to find their way inside, Asiri said work is going upon the military plan while Security Council-related discussions are left to political decision-makers. He added that military operations are proceeding to achieve the goals announced at the beginning. Asked what the coalition forces are going to do to end Al-Qaeda's control of the Yemeni city of Al-Makalla, Asiri said priority in this campaign is for the security and safety of Yemeni citizens and "we are not going to allow those groups to change our plan and attract us inside cities". He added that work against Al-Qaeda requires different behavior as the matter is based on the security dimension rather than the military one. "We are aware that they want to drag us to change our focus on the basic goals but in vain", he said. --More 23:44 LOCAL TIME 20:44 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w