A drone believed to be Iranian crashed into the British RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus on Sunday, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said. The UK Ministry of Defence described the incident as a suspected drone strike at about midnight local time (22:00 GMT).
There were no casualties and the base suffered only minimal damage. As a precaution, family members living on the base were moved to alternative accommodation. The MoD said force protection in the region is at its highest level and that the base had responded to defend personnel.
The event follows Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement that the UK had agreed to a US request to use British military bases for defensive strikes. An MoD spokesperson said on Monday morning that RAF Akrotiri and its personnel continue to operate as normal, protecting Britain and its interests.
The Sovereign Base Areas Administration confirmed plans for the temporary dispersal of non-essential personnel from RAF Akrotiri station. That measure applies only to the military base; residents of the nearby village of Akrotiri do not need to leave and local workplaces and services remain open.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she had been briefed by the Cypriot president and stressed that the EU stands collectively with member states facing threats.
The incident adds to a recent pattern of Iranian attacks across the region. Iran has responded to earlier tensions by firing ballistic missiles and launching drones at US assets and allied countries, including strikes affecting Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Defence Secretary John Healey warned that British troops and civilians in the Middle East are being put at risk by what he called indiscriminate attacks.
Healey also said two ballistic missiles were fired toward Cyprus earlier, though he believes Cyprus was not the intended target. A Cypriot government spokesman said Prime Minister Starmer had told President Christodoulides that Cyprus was not a target.
On the same day, an RAF Typhoon jet operating from Qatar shot down an Iranian drone during a defensive air patrol, the MoD said. That was the first time a UK fighter had downed an Iranian drone since the recent round of strikes began. Earlier, a UK counter-drone unit in Iraq intercepted another Iranian drone heading toward a coalition base with UK personnel.
Starmer said the UK had learned lessons from the mistakes of Iraq, that it was not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and would not join offensive action now. He said allowing US use of British bases was a decision grounded in collective self-defence and the protection of British lives, and accused Iran of pursuing a scorched-earth approach. The BBC understands the US is likely to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for strikes on Iranian missile sites.