A unidirectional attack drone said to have been launched by Lebanese Hezbollah struck the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus around midnight on Sunday, leading to the partial evacuation of the military facility.
Cypriot authorities said they successfully intercepted two more drones on Monday morning as part of an ongoing operation targeting the base on the third day of the Middle East war.
It has not been publicly determined where the drones were launched, although officials said the first was launched before Keir Starmer announced that Britain would allow the United States to use its air bases to bomb Iranian missile sites.
A Cypriot news agency reported that the damage to the air base was caused by a small, low-flying drone launched by Lebanese Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group, but the British Ministry of Defense had not issued an official confirmation on Monday afternoon.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said: “Our armed forces are responding to a suspected drone attack on Royal Air Force Base Akrotiri, Cyprus, at midnight local time. Our force protection in the area is at the highest level and the base has responded to protect our people.”
Defense Ministry sources said the drone was likely a Shahd drone, a relatively cheap Iranian-designed one-way attack vehicle. Its components have been recovered and are being investigated.
British base management issued a security alert to residents near Akrotiri on Sunday night, advising residents to shelter in place until further notice “following a suspected drone strike.”
On Monday morning, a Cypriot government spokesman said: “Two drones flying in the direction of the British base in Akrotiri were intercepted in time.”
The defense ministry said counter-drone measures had been stepped up in Akrotiri, but they were not enough to prevent the first drone from breaching local defences. It is believed that the incident caused no casualties and only limited damage.
Families of British military personnel have been asked to leave the base for their own safety and will be based elsewhere in Cyprus until the alert has passed.
The drone struck hours after Britain agreed to let the United States use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, but officials said the likely length of the flight meant it was launched before the British prime minister announced the new policy.
Iran considers Britain a close ally of the United States, despite Britain’s attempts so far to limit its involvement in the conflict.
Starmer said in a recorded statement on Sunday night that Iran’s actions had become more reckless and put British lives at risk, leading to Iran’s decision to allow the United States to use its military bases.
He said British forces would not be directly involved in the attack and that the bases would only be used for “specific and limited defense purposes”, namely targeting missile stockpiles and launchers used to attack Iran’s neighbours.
“We decided to accept this request to prevent Iran from launching missiles across the region… killing innocent civilians… putting British lives at risk… and striking countries that are not involved,” he said.
US President Donald Trump has said he wants to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Indian Ocean’s Chagos archipelago, to attack deep Iranian missile silos with bunker-busting bombs, most likely using stealth B-2 bombers.
The UK Ministry of Defense confirmed on Monday that people living at RAF Akrotiri will be moved to accommodation near Cyprus “as a precautionary measure”. The statement added: “Our bases and personnel continue to operate as normal, protecting the UK’s security and our interests.”
On Monday morning, Cyprus President Nicos Christodoulides said that the Akrotiri base was attacked by a Shahd drone at night, causing minor material damage. “I want to make it clear: our country is not involved in any way and does not intend to be involved in any military action,” Christodoulides said in a statement.
The UK retains sovereignty over two base territories in EU member Cyprus. Royal Air Force Base Akrotiri covers a vast square peninsula at the southern end of the eastern Mediterranean island. The last time it was directly attacked by Libyan militants was in the mid-1980s.
The joint operating base “serves as a forward base for overseas operations and fast jet training in the Middle East,” according to the Department of Defense website. It is understood the UK government has recently moved additional resources to bases in Cyprus as part of its Middle East operations.
Hostilities in the Middle East entered their third day on Monday, with the United States and Israel continuing to attack Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike.
Asked about the safety of hundreds of thousands of British nationals in the region, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Monday that around 102,000 people (she estimated the total could be 300,000) had registered with British authorities.
