Did Iran File Missile At British Air Base In Cyprus? As Video Goes Viral, UK Defense Secretary Says...

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Britain's defence secretary John Healey said on Sunday that "Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks" to US-Israeli strikes included "two ballistic missiles fired in the direction of Cyprus", although he was "pretty sure" it was not being targeted.

Healey said these attacks demonstrated how British military personnel nd civilians were "at risk with a regime that is increasingly indiscriminate, widespread and uncontrolled in the attacks it is mounting".

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His statement came as a video emerged on social media, purportedly capturing activity in the sky near RAF Akrotiri.

"We had two ballistic missiles fired in the direction of Cyprus," John Healey told the BBC. He noted that UK warplanes were involved in "defensive" actions in the region, operating from the UK's airbase on the island and from a base in Qatar.

"Now we are pretty sure they weren't targeted at Cyprus, but nevertheless it demonstrates how our bases, our personnel, military and civilians at the moment are at risk," he was quoted as saying by AFP, without providing further details about the missiles and any interception of them.

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A Cypriot government spokesman later said Sir Keir had "clearly confirmed that Cyprus was not a target" during a telephone call with the country's president Nikos Christodoulides, the BBC reported.

What else did John Healey claim?

On Sunday, an RAF Typhoon jet operating out of Qatar shot down an Iranian drone in a "defensive air patrol", the Ministry of Defence said.

He accused Tehran of being "increasingly indiscriminate, widespread and uncontrolled in the attacks it's mounting".

Healey revealed the previously undisclosed missile incidents as pointing to "a really serious and deteriorating situation" in the Middle East and the "rising risks of increasing Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks".

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"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. It requires us to act defensively," he told Sky News in a separate interview Sunday.

"Alongside the Americans, we've stepped up our defensive forces in the Middle East. We're flying those sorties. We're taking down the drones that are menacing either our bases, our people or our allies," Healey said.

John Healey also told the BBC "no-one will mourn" Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during US and Israeli air strikes on Iran.

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Healey also claimed in the interview that since the strikes had begun, British military personnel in Bahrain had been "within several hundred yards" of a retaliatory missile and drone strike on Saturday, while two missiles had been fired in the direction of Cyprus.

"In that Bahrain military base that was hit by missiles and drones yesterday, we had 300 British personnel, some within several hundred yards of the strike," Healey told the BBC.

He further clarified that the UK did not participate in the strikes, and that it was for the US to set out the legal basis for its actions.

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When asked if the UK backed the US-Israeli strikes on Iran or thought they were legal, Healey said while the UK had not taken part in the strikes, "we share, however, the primary aim of all allies in the region and the US that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon".

(With inputs from The BBC)

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