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A member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and two other people were killed in an Israeli strike in Syria on Friday, media reports said, in the third consecutive day of Israeli attacks on Syria.
Three violent explosions shook the centre of Baniyas, on Syria's Mediterranean coast, during the dawn strike on a villa that housed “a group affiliated with Iran”, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A building was destroyed, killing an Iranian and two other non-Syrians who were with him, said the Britain-based watchdog, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Iran's official news agency Irna later said Reza Zarei, a member of the IRGC's navy, had been “killed at dawn today by the usurping Zionist regime”.
The government-controlled city of Baniyas is home to an oil refinery, with Iranian tankers docking at its port.
Israel has not confirmed the strike. It rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.
Iran backs the Syrian government of President Bashar Al Assad and Hezbollah, which supports Hamas.
On Thursday, Israel killed a Hezbollah fighter in a strike on Syria, close to the Lebanese border, the Observatory said, hours after similar attacks.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on targets in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011. The targets have mainly been Iran-backed forces, including militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, as well as Syrian army positions.
Tehran is a key political, military and financial backer of the Assad government, and has sent military advisers and volunteers to bolster its forces.
Tehran says it has stationed forces in Syria at the invitation of Damascus, but only as advisers.
The strikes have increased since Israel's war with Palestinian militant group Hamas began on October 7.
Syria's war has claimed the lives of more than half a million people and displaced millions since it broke out in March 2011 after security forces began a brutal clampdown on anti-government protests.
With reporting from agencies
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
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UAE jiu-jitsu squad
Men: Hamad Nawad and Khalid Al Balushi (56kg), Omar Al Fadhli and Saeed Al Mazroui (62kg), Taleb Al Kirbi and Humaid Al Kaabi (69kg), Mohammed Al Qubaisi and Saud Al Hammadi (70kg), Khalfan Belhol and Mohammad Haitham Radhi (85kg), Faisal Al Ketbi and Zayed Al Kaabi (94kg)
Women: Wadima Al Yafei and Mahra Al Hanaei (49kg), Bashayer Al Matrooshi and Hessa Al Shamsi (62kg)
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
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%3Cp%3EFly%20with%20Etihad%20Airways%20from%20Abu%20Dhabi%20to%20New%20York%E2%80%99s%20JFK.%20There's%2011%20flights%20a%20week%20and%20economy%20fares%20start%20at%20around%20Dh5%2C000.%3Cbr%3EStay%20at%20The%20Mark%20Hotel%20on%20the%20city%E2%80%99s%20Upper%20East%20Side.%20Overnight%20stays%20start%20from%20%241395%20per%20night.%3Cbr%3EVisit%20NYC%20Go%2C%20the%20official%20destination%20resource%20for%20New%20York%20City%20for%20all%20the%20latest%20events%2C%20activites%20and%20openings.%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
