BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Mar 18th 2025

DRC

The M23 withdrew from peace talks in Angola, surprising no one.
The Rwanda-backed rebels cited two reasons for withdrawing from talks: first, they said negotiations "have become impracticable" after the EU slapped sanctions on some of its leaders Sunday (which is also what led Rwanda and Belgium to mutually sever diplomatic ties).
But even if the EU hadn't imposed sanctions, M23 likely would've fallen back on its second excuse, which was that the DRC military was still attacking its positions (M23 is still attacking FARDC positions, too).

Gaza

Israel carried out its first large-scale airstrikes on Gaza in months, in what Prime Minister Netanyahu said was a response to "Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators."
Hamas said this morning's strikes killed at least 330 - including one of their likely targets, Gaza's interior ministry chief Gen. Mahmud Abu Watfa - and threatened that the reopening of hostilities could be a "death sentence" for the remaining 25 living hostages it holds. However, Hamas stopped short of pulling out of the ceasefire and remains open to negotiations.
The fact that Israel resumed airstrikes instead of launching a new ground invasion suggests that it, too, hopes to revive talks and force Hamas to compromise instead of completely abandoning the fragile ceasefire.

Ukraine and Russia

Russian Engineer, a military blogger, wrote that Russia was able to turn the tide against Ukraine in Kursk by adopting a tactic Ukraine used against Russia on the other side of the border: using drones - jam-resistant fiber-optic drones, in Russia's case - to sever supply lines and isolate front-line fighters.
Ukrainian analyst Serhii Flash seemed to agree with that assessment in a Telegram post: "One of the reasons for the enemy's [Russia's] success - just as we gathered the best drone units in Pokrovsky, the enemy brought up his own similar ones in the Kursk direction to disrupt logistics. Without logistics, an army does not fight for long."
It's clear that Ukraine has lost a valuable bargaining chip - as well as perhaps dozens of captured soldiers - in its withdrawal from Kursk thus far. Some Ukrainian units remain on strategic highgrounds inside Russia.

Yemen and Iran

The U.S. continued its airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Pres. Trump accused Iran (accurately) of "dictating every move, giving [Houthis] the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.’ "
Trump also warned that he will hold Iran responsible for "[e]very shot fired by the Houthis...from this point forward."
He may be seeking to pressure Iran to respond to a letter he sent last week proposing new nuclear talks. Iran hasn't responded yet, and its senior officials seem to cautiously disagree with its Supreme Leader's resistance to talks.

Syria

Syria's new government accused Hezbollah fighters of crossing into Syria, abducting three Syrian soldiers, and killing them in Lebanon on Saturday.
Hezbollah blamed the kidnappings and murders on local clans and cross-border smugglers instead of its own ranks, but then Lebanese soldiers got involved and returned Syrian fire.
Lebanon and Syria quickly made peace and ended the clashes.