Iran missiles fired towards UK military bases in Cyprus, defence minister says

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Sunday 01 March 2026 12:14 GMT


Two missiles from Iran were fired in the direction of Cyprus, where the UK has military bases, the defence secretary has revealed.

John Healey said the government did not believe they were targeting the bases intentionally, but said “it shows how indiscriminate” the Iranian retaliation to Saturday’s US-Israel strikes was. He also said that 300 UK military personnel were close to targets that were hit in Bahrain.

John Healey told Sky News's Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: "This is a really serious and deteriorating situation, (with) rising risks of increasing Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks. "Let me give you a couple of examples. Yesterday, we had 300 personnel on that Bahrain base that was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones, some of them within a few hundred yards of where they landed.

"We had two missiles fired in the direction of Cyprus. We don't believe they were targeted at Cyprus, but nevertheless, it's an example of how there is a very real and rising threat from a regime that is lashing out widely across the region, and that requires us to act." The revelations came a day after Sir Keir Starmer said the UK had ordered “planes in the sky” over the Middle East on defensive operations to protect our allies.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/iran-missiles-cyprus-defence-secretary-b2929655.html

[James48]

1. Not random.

Iran targeted the British base on Cyprus because in the last cycle, the U.S. put U.S. military aircraft and people on Cyprus going into and out of Israel, as well as in and out of other places. They are hitting wherever American military has been living and operating. I’m surprised there are not reported U.S. casualties anywhere- it’s really just starting.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. The U.S.S. Gerald Ford group had docked in Crete before heading for Haifa

So that whole eastern Mediterranean is vulnerable.

[QueerDuck]

2. At what point could (or would) this become technically another World War?

[pat_k]

4. ..."that requires us to act."

Don't know the point at which it is officially a "world war," but this is how one starts.

Number 1, Mission In Progress
Number 2, remains to be seen....

1. Pulling other nations in.

2. Ethnic division rampant with chaos on the ground.

3. Civil and regional war

....