A one-way attack drone has struck the UK’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, prompting a partial evacuation of the base.
Officials believe the drone, which hit at about midnight local time, was launched before Keir Starmer announced the UK would allow the US to use its airbases to bomb Iranian missile sites, but it had not yet been publicly determined from where the drone was launched.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “Our armed forces are responding to a suspected drone strike at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus at midnight local time. Our force protection in the region is at the highest level and the base has responded to defend our people.”
A security alert put out to residents in the vicinity of Akrotiri by the British base’s administration on Sunday night advised residents to shelter in place until further notice “following a suspected drone impact”.
Anti-drone measures had been stepped up at the base, the Ministry of Defence said, but these were insufficient to stop the attack drone getting past the local defences. The incident is not thought to have caused any casualties and only limited damage.
Family members of British military personnel have been asked leave to leave the base for their own safety, and will be based elsewhere in Cyprus until the alert passes.
The drone struck hours after the UK agreed to let the US use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, but officials indicate the possible flight times mean it was launched before the prime minister announced the new policy.
It is possible the drone could have been launched from Iran, though it may also have been fired by one of Iran’s proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. Though the UK has tried to limit its involvement in the conflict so far, it is considered by Iran to be a close ally of the US.
In a recorded statement on Sunday evening, Starmer said Iran’s approach was becoming more reckless and putting British lives at risk, leading to the decision to allow the US to use its military bases.
He said British forces would not be directly involved in the strikes, and the bases would only be used for the “specific and limited defensive purpose” of targeting missile storage depots and launchers being used to attack Iran’s neighbours.
“We have taken the decision to accept this request, to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region … killing innocent civilians … putting British lives at risk … and hitting countries that have not been involved,” he said.
The US president, Donald Trump, has indicated he wants to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia – the largest of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean – most likely for stealth B-2 bombers which will attack Iran’s deep-lying missile silos with bunker busting bombs.
The MoD confirmed on Monday that people who live at RAF Akrotiri were being moved to accommodation nearby on Cyprus “as a precautionary measure”. “Our base and personnel continue to operate as normal protecting the safety of Britain and our interests,” it added.
On Monday morning, the president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, said the Akrotiri base was hit overnight by an unmanned Shahed drone which caused minor material damage. “I want to be clear: our country does not participate in any way and does not intend to be part of any military operation,” Christodoulides said in a statement.
Britain retains sovereignty over the territory of two bases on Cyprus, which is a member of the EU. RAF Akrotiri covers a sprawling, square-shaped peninsula on the southern tip of the eastern Mediterranean island. The last time it was directly attacked was by Libyan militants in the mid-1980s.
According to the MoD’s website, the joint operating base is “used as a forward mounting base for overseas operations in the Middle East and for fast jet training”. It is understood the UK government recently moved additional resources to bases in Cyprus as part of its operations in the Middle East.
Hostilities in the Middle East entered their third day on Monday, with the US and Israel continuing to strike Iran after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike.
Asked about the safety of hundreds of thousands of UK nationals in the region, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that about 102,000 people – of a possible total she put at 300,000 – had registered their presence with UK authorities.