Crossword Genius

Fresh air and rising intelligence of Asian (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

iraqi

'asian' is the definition.
(someone from Iraq)

'fresh air and rising intelligence' is the wordplay.
'fresh' indicates an anagram (a fresh re-ordering of the letters).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'rising' says the letters should be written backwards (in a down clue, letters go up).
'intelligence' becomes 'IQ' (short for intelligence quotient).
'iq' in reverse letter order is 'qi'.
'air' is an anagram of 'ira'.
'ira'+'qi'='IRAQI'

'of' is the link.

(Other definitions for iraqi that I've seen before include "From Basra, possibly" , "Foreign citizen" , "foreigner" , "Inhabitant of Baghdad?" , "Citizen of Baghdad, say" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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