An officer of Iran's Revolutionary Guard was reported killed as Israeli strikes hit Damascus early on Friday in the second round of attacks on the Syrian capital in less than 24 hours.
“The Israeli enemy carried out an aerial attack by firing several missiles from the occupied Syrian Golan and targeting one of the positions in the vicinity of Damascus,” Syria's state news outlet Sana reported.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said one of their military advisers was killed in the attack.
"The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has announced the martyrdom of guardsman Milad Haydari, one of the IRGC's military advisers and officers, in the criminal attack of the Zionist regime on the outskirts of Damascus at dawn today," the IRGC said in statement reported by Iranian state media.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory, aimed at Iran-backed forces including the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, and the Syrian army.
Several missiles were intercepted after midnight on Friday by Syrian air defences but some got through and caused damage, Sana said.
In the attack on Thursday, two soldiers were wounded, the Syrian Defence Ministry said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes were focused on positions of the Syrian military and pro-Iran groups in south-west Damascus.
The missiles destroyed a weapons and ammunition depot but no casualties were reported, the war monitor said.
Residents of Damascus were awakened by loud bangs early on Friday, AFP reported.
While Israel rarely comments on the strikes it carries out on Syria, it has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to extend its presence there.
An Israeli air strike killed 15 people in a Damascus district that houses state security agencies last month, the war monitor said at the time.
Last week, an Israeli missile strike destroyed a suspected arms depot used by Iran-backed militias at Syria's Aleppo airport, it said.
On March 7, three people were killed in an Israeli strike on the airport, putting it out of service. It reopened three days later.
Why is Israel targeting Syria?
Since Syria's civil war started in 2011, Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah have entrenched themselves around Damascus and in the north, east and south of the country as they helped President Bashar Al Assad fight rebel groups.
Israel, which views Iran as an arch-enemy, has acknowledged carrying out attacks on these forces but rarely comments on individual actions.
The strikes are part of wider "shadow war" with Iran that include unclaimed attacks on each other's assets, infrastructure and nationals.
"In the last days we've seen more air strikes close to the Syrian capital, presumably targeting Iranian arms depots. These are part of a larger escalation," said Bente Scheller, head of the Middle East Division of Heinrich Boell Foundation, a German think tank.
"While targeting Iranian personnel and arms deliveries, each of these attacks is a slap into Assad's face: in hundreds of air strikes since 2011, Israel has shown that Syrian air defence is not capable of preventing them," Ms Scheller told The National.
Ms Scheller noted that Israel's latest attacks come at a time when the government faces internal pressures from protests against the ruling right-wing coalition.
"External conflicts might be considered a means of distraction, especially when it is against Iran which is perceived as a threat to Israel's security," she said.
The threat from Iran has been seen to increase in recent months following Tehran's announcements of major advances in its uranium enrichment to levels close to those required for nuclear weapons.
Profile of Bitex UAE
Date of launch: November 2018
Founder: Monark Modi
Based: Business Bay, Dubai
Sector: Financial services
Size: Eight employees
Investors: Self-funded to date with $1m of personal savings
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
Takreem Awards winners 2021
Corporate Leadership: Carl Bistany (Lebanon)
Cultural Excellence: Hoor Al Qasimi (UAE)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Bkerzay (Lebanon)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Raya Ani (Iraq)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Women’s Programs Association (Lebanon)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Osamah Al Thini (Libya)
Excellence in Education: World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) (Qatar)
Outstanding Arab Woman: Balghis Badri (Sudan)
Scientific and Technological Achievement: Mohamed Slim Alouini (KSA)
Young Entrepreneur: Omar Itani (Lebanon)
Lifetime Achievement: Suad Al Amiry (Palestine)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, John Oliver
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Match info:
Real Betis v Sevilla, 10.45pm (UAE)
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
(All games 4-3pm kick UAE time) Bayern Munich v Augsburg, Borussia Dortmund v Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin, Wolfsburg v Mainz , Eintracht Frankfurt v Freiburg, Union Berlin v RB Leipzig, Cologne v Schalke , Werder Bremen v Borussia Monchengladbach, Stuttgart v Arminia Bielefeld
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
- Saturday 15 January: UAE beat Canada by 49 runs
- Thursday 20 January: v England
- Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad:
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles
Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly,
Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya
Shetty, Kai Smith
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
