British fighter jets have reportedly taken off from RAF Akrotiri in Limassol to defend Israel against an Iranian drone attack launched on Sunday.
According to Sky News and Al-Arabiya, the United Kingdom has dispatched jets from its base in Cyprus to intercept Iranian drones.
The development comes after Israel’s top-rated Channel 12 TV reported US and British warplanes have downed some Iranian drones over the Iraq-Syria border area.
Iran has vowed retaliation for what it called an Israeli strike on its Damascus consulate on April 1 that killed seven Guards officers including two senior commanders and said its strike was a punishment for “Israeli crimes”. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the consulate attack.
Israel and neighbouring Jordan, which lies between Iraq and Israel, said they were closing their airspace on Saturday night and Jordan announced a state of emergency.
Syria, an ally of Iran, said it was putting its ground-to-air defence systems around the capital and major bases on high alert, army sources there said.
The Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, now in its seventh month, has driven up tensions in the region, spreading to fronts with Lebanon and Syria and drawing long-range fire at Israeli targets from as far away as Yemen and Iraq.
Those clashes now threaten to morph into a direct open conflict pitting Iran and its regional allies against Israel and its main supporter the United States.
(With information from Reuters)
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