The British RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus was hit by a suspected drone attack, causing limited damage and no casualties, Cypriot authorities and the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said.
A security alert sent to residents in the vicinity of Akrotiri by the British base administration advised residents to shelter in place until further notice “following a suspected drone strike.”
A Ministry of Defense spokesperson said: “Our armed forces are responding to a suspected drone attack on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus at midnight local time. Our protection force in the region is at the highest level and the base has responded to defend our people.”
The apparent attack came just hours after the United Kingdom agreed to allow the United States to use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites.
The UK has so far not been involved in the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, but in a recorded statement on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister said Iran’s approach was becoming more reckless and putting British lives at risk, leading to the decision to allow the US to use two of its military bases.
Early on Monday, a Cypriot government spokesperson said that “information received through various channels indicates that this was an unmanned drone, which caused limited damage.”
Britain retains sovereignty over the territory of two bases in Cyprus, which is a member of the EU. RAF Akrotiri covers an extensive square-shaped peninsula at the southern end of the eastern Mediterranean island. The last time it was directly attacked was by Libyan militants in the mid-1980s.
According to the Ministry of Defense website, the joint operating base is “used as a forward assembly base for overseas operations in the Middle East and for fast aircraft training.”
It is understood that the UK government recently moved additional resources to bases in Cyprus as part of ongoing operations in the Middle East.
Hostilities in the Middle East entered their third day on Monday, with the United States and Israel continuing to attack Iran following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In his announcement on Sunday, Starmer said more than 200,000 British citizens, including military personnel, are believed to be at risk in the Gulf as Iran launches more missiles at its neighbors.
Starmer said British forces would not be directly involved in the attacks and that the bases would only be used for the “specific and limited defensive purpose” of attacking missile storage depots and launchers used to attack Iran’s neighbors.
It is not clear which bases will be used, but US President Donald Trump had previously referred to asking to use Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.
With Reuters and the Press Association
