Breaking News, 1st of August, 2018

Russian investigative Committee opened a criminal case on the murder of the Russian film crew after their death in the Central African Republic. The group consisted of three journalists: Orhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko, Interfax reported after being informed by an official representative of the Investigative Committee — Svetlana Petrenko. A criminal case was initiated under the Article 105 — murder. One of the dead journalists, Kirill Radchenko, was a volunteer reporter of ANNA News — he previously worked for a long time in Syria. He was a part of another crew working on their project on the territory of the Central African Republic. We offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the deceased.

The Pentagon announced the approval of the US State Department regarding the selling of 46 US-made anti-aircraft guided missiles SM-2 to Denmark in order «to ensure political stability and economic progress in the region», and to support the NATO ally. The US military department added that the cost of the deal between the US military-industrial company Raytheon and the Danish government is 152 millions of dollars, TASS reports. Anti-aircraft guided missile SM-2 destroys ballistic targets by direct hit due to the kinetic energy released by impact.

The Syrian army, for the first time in a long while, launched a military operation in the northern province of Latakia. Units of Syrian Army and the Republican Guard attacked jihadists in the vicinity of the city of Sarraf, forcing the terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham to abandon some of their positions. The military reporters of the Syrian Army reported that the army is planning to surround the city and continue assault.

Turkey responded to US threats of imposing sanctions against the country. The statement was the result of the meeting in the National Security Council of Turkey. The report underlines that the ‘language of threats’ that the US used «is disrespectful for the relations, and it is absolutely unacceptable.» The National Security Council noted that Turkey fulfills all their obligations in the defense matters. However, the conditions that were put forward by the American partners are contrary to international agreements and they will «irreparably damage the strategic partnership and trust between the two countries.» Earlier, Donald Trump threatened Ankara with all sorts of punishments for cooperation with Russia.

Two-week long multinational NATO training exercises «Worthy partner — 2018″ were launched in Georgia, the newspaper »VZGLYAD» reports. More than 3,000 troops from 13 NATO countries, and partner countries of the NATO will partake in the exercises. The exercise itself is being held in Georgia for the fourth time. It began as a Georgian-American training, and grew every year. Last year, 2,800 of military servicemen from 8 countries took part in the exercises. The military equipment that took part in the exercises was taken to Georgia from the American military bases in Germany.

Pro-Iranian formations located in the southern zone of de-escalation in Syria were moved 85 km from the line of demarcation due to an agreement with Israel with a guarantee from the Russian side, Interfax reported while citing the statement of the Russian special representative for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev. «According to our plan, which includes Israel, the UN mission for demarcation will be placed in this demilitarized zone.» — Lavrentiev explained.