UK, France send warships, air defence assets to Cyprus after drone attack 

The United Kingdom is deploying a warship and helicopters to Cyprus, the British government has said, as global concern continues to mount over the fallout from deadly US-Israel attacks on Iran and retaliatory Iranian strikes across the region.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that it was sending the HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean along with two Wildcat helicopters “to bolster drone defence for our Cypriot partners”.

One of the Royal Navy’s six Type-45 air defence destroyers, the HMS Dragon is fitted with a Sea Viper missile system able to launch eight missiles in under 10 seconds and guide up to 16 missiles simultaneously, the ministry said in a statement.

In a social media post announcing the deployment, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the country was “fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there”.

“We will always act in the interest of the UK and our allies,” he wrote on X.

Later on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to move from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. He said the Charles de Gaulle will be escorted by its air wing and its escorting frigates.

In a prerecorded speech on French TV, Macron added that Rafale fighter jets, air defence systems, and airborne radar systems have been deployed over the past few hours in the Middle East.

“And we will continue this effort as much as necessary,” Macron said. He cited Monday’s strike on a British air force base on Cyprus, adding that Cyprus and France have recently signed a strategic partnership agreement.

“This requires our support. That is why I have decided to send additional air defence assets there as well, along with a French frigate, the Languedoc, which will arrive off the coast of Cyprus later this evening,” Macron said.

The announcements come a day after the Cypriot government and the British Defence Ministry said a surprise Iranian-made drone attack targeted the Royal Air Force base ⁠of Akrotiri, southwest of Cyprus’s coastal city of Limassol.

The country’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, said a Shahed-type unmanned aerial ‌vehicle caused minor damage when it crashed into the military facilities early on Monday.

Reporting from outside the base, Al Jazeera’s John Psaropoulos said about 1,000 residents were evacuated from their homes as authorities worked to put emergency procedures in place.

“There are no sirens, for example. There’s no way to warn people of an incoming air attack,” he said. “They are trying to tally all of the transport means at their disposal, such as local municipal buses and other vehicles, to transport people in the event of another aerial attack.”

Iran has launched missiles and drones at several countries in and around the Middle East in response to attacks by the US and Israel, which began bombing Iran on Saturday amid international efforts to reach a deal on the Iranian nuclear programme.

US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 787 people across Iran since the conflict began, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, while a range of targets in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries have been targeted by Tehran.

The British armed forces have helped shoot down multiple drones across the region over the past 24 hours, according to the Defence Ministry, including over Jordan, Iraq and Qatar.

Starmer initially refused to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran, but later agreed to a request from US President Donald Trump’s administration to use two British military bases for a “specific and limited defensive purpose”.

Those bases are in Gloucestershire in western England and the UK-US Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, and Starmer has insisted that the Akrotiri base in Cyprus is not being used by US bombers.