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British air base in Cyprus hit by suspected drone strike

Yiannis Kourtoglou
Yiannis Kourtoglou
Mar 2, 2026
Police check vehicles on the road leading to RAF Akrotiri, a British sovereign base in Cyprus, which was hit by an unmanned drone overnight, causing limited damage, Cyprus March 2, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou
Police check vehicles on the road leading to RAF Akrotiri, a British sovereign base in Cyprus, which was hit by an unmanned drone overnight, causing limited damage, Cyprus March 2, 2026. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou — Yiannis Kourtoglou

NICOSIA, March 2 (Reuters) - Britain's Royal Air Force base Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a suspected drone strike overnight, causing limited damage and no casualties, Cypriot authorities and the UK's Ministry of Defence said.

A Cyprus government spokesperson said that "information received through various channels indicates that it involved an unmanned drone, which caused limited damage". A security alert put out to residents in the vicinity of Akrotiri by the British bases administration advised residents to shelter in place until further notice 'following a suspected drone impact'.

Britain retains sovereignty over the territory of two bases on the eastern Mediterranean island, which is a member of the European Union. RAF Akrotiri covers a sprawling, square-shaped peninsula on the southern tip of Cyprus. The last time it was directly attacked was by Libyan militants in the mid-1980s.

(Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru and Michele Kambas in Nicosia; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Jacqueline Wong)