LONDON, March 4, (Xinhua): Britain is sending helicopters and a warship to Cyprus, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday. "The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there. We're continuing our defensive operations and I've just spoken with the president of Cyprus to let him know that we are sending helicopters with counter drone capabilities and HMS Dragon is to be deployed to the region," he said in a post on social media X.

The British air base at Akrotiri on the southern coast of Cyprus was hit by a drone early Monday, base authorities and the Cypriot government said. Authorities at the base said personnel were informed that a "small drone" had impacted the airfield and that the base was responding to the incident. No casualties were reported, though there was "minor damage."

The strike came shortly after Starmer announced that he would allow the United States to use British military bases to "destroy Iranian missiles at source." Local media also reported that a monitoring aircraft circled south of Cyprus for about three hours early Monday and remained airborne as of 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT).