UK sends more fighter jets to Gulf: PM / Photo: © POOL/AFP
UK sends more fighter jets to Gulf: PM
Britain is sending additional fighter jets to Qatar amid the widening war in the Middle East, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Thursday as his defence minister visited Cyprus.
The four Typhoon planes will join an existing UK squadron in the Gulf state "to strengthen our defensive operations in Qatar and across the region", Starmer told reporters.
The announcement came after Defence Secretary John Healey arrived in Cyprus following a drone strike on a UK air base on the Mediterranean island earlier this week.
An Iranian-made unmanned drone struck a hangar at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base at Akrotiri on Monday.
Two further drones detected that day were shot down by British warplanes.
"As circumstances in any conflict change, you've got to be willing to adapt the action you take," Healey told Sky News from the Akrotiri base, adding that Iranian strikes were "increasingly indiscriminate".
Healey earlier posted on X alongside a photograph of himself meeting Cypriot Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas.
The pair discussed how "the UK is further reinforcing our air defences to support our shared security," he added.
Britain's Labour government has faced criticism from the Cypriot authorities over its response to the attacks.
On Wednesday, Cyprus's High Commissioner to the UK Kyriacos Kouros said Cypriots were "disappointed" at the level of information-sharing with residents.
"Let's say the people are disappointed, the people are scared, the people could expect more," he told the BBC's Newsnight programme.
Starmer told a news conference Thursday that two Wildcat helicopters armed with Martlet missiles that can take down drones would arrive in Cyprus on Friday.
He had announced their deployment on Tuesday, adding that he was also dispatching "helicopters with counter-drone capabilities" as part of Britain's "defensive operations" in the region.
Starmer has also deployed HMS Dragon, a Type 45 air defence destroyer able to launch eight missiles in under 10 seconds and guide up to 16 missiles simultaneously.
It is not due to set sail until next week however, according to officials.
- 'Limited defensive purposes' -
Starmer has faced criticism from the opposition Conservative party which said he has been too slow to deploy resources to the region.
The premier insisted that throughout January and February the government moved fighter jets, air defence missiles and advanced radar systems to the region.
UK Typhoon and F-35B jets have been operating in the Middle East since the war began on Saturday with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Starmer initially refused to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran but later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a "specific and limited defensive purpose".
Those bases are in Gloucestershire, western England, and the UK-US Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.
Starmer has insisted that the Akrotiri base is not being used by US bombers.
Monday's drone strike there caused minimal damage and no casualties, British officials said.
Service personnel's families have been moved away from the base as a precaution.
(Y.Leyard--DTZ)
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