Moscow Secures Control Over Kursk… Netanyahu and Shin Bet Chief Trade Accusations /  Trump Declares War on Yemen: Airstrikes and Heavy Bombardment Until the Red Sea Opens

 March 17, 2025

The political editor wrote

According to The New York Times, Ukrainian officers have acknowledged that Ukraine’s control over key areas of the Kursk region inside Russian territory has come to an end. After successive retreats over the past two months, Russian forces have steadily advanced, culminating in the final expulsion of the last Ukrainian units from the region, with many captured or killed. This achievement fulfills Russian President Vladimir Putin’s directive to his forces on the eve of the U.S. call for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, Russia remains inside Ukraine, while Ukraine has been forced out of Russia, dismantling President Volodymyr Zelensky’s strategy of territorial bargaining.

Meanwhile, a major development in the region unfolded as U.S. President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced a full-scale war on Yemen, ordering American forces to launch airstrikes and missile attacks on Yemeni military positions, Ansar Allah, and Yemeni leadership figures. The declared objective was to eliminate Yemen’s ability to interfere with Red Sea shipping, in retaliation for Yemen’s blockade of vessels bound for the occupying entity’s ports – a response to the entity’s blockade preventing humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza.

The war’s toll included 47 U.S. airstrikes on Yemeni provinces, with Sana’a and Sa’ada bearing the brunt. More than fifty people were killed, hundreds were wounded, and residential and government buildings were destroyed. In response, Yemen targeted the USS Harry S. Truman and its escort ships with 18 ballistic missiles and 20 drones. The U.S. Navy admitted that one missile struck the carrier, while Yemeni military sources asserted that multiple missiles hit the target and that the drones successfully reached their intended marks within the U.S. fleet.

Ansar Allah leader Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi declared yesterday that Yemen would not waver in its support for Gaza. He dismissed the U.S. aggression as unrelated to ensuring maritime security, previously unthreatened until the American assault, emphasising that Yemen had only targeted ships bound for the occupying entity’s ports to ensure humanitarian aid reached Gaza. He framed the U.S. attack as direct involvement in the entity’s starvation war against the Palestinian people.