Cyprus was the likely launchpad for strikes conducted by the United Kingdom\u2019s Royal Air Force against Islamic State targets in Syria on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The British government announced late on Saturday that four Typhoon fighter jets, supported by a Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker, \u201cjoined French aircraft in a joint strike\u201d on an underground facility, which it said was located \u201cin the mountains some miles north of the ancient site of Palmyra\u201d in central Syria.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur aircraft used Paveway IV guided bombs to target a number of access tunnels down to the facility,\u201d it said, before adding that a \u201cdetailed assessment is now underway\u201d and that \u201cinitial indications are that the target was engaged successfully\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no indication of any risk having been posed to civilians by the strike, and all our aircraft returned successfully,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
It said the RAF has been conducting patrols over Syria \u201cto help prevent any resurgence\u201d of the Islamic State since 2019, and that \u201ccareful intelligence analysis\u201d had led them to identify the facility.<\/p>\n
The facility, it said, had \u201cmost likely\u201d been used to \u201cstore weapons and explosives\u201d, while it stressed that \u201cthe area around the facility is devoid of any civilian habitation\u201d.<\/p>\n
British Defence Secretary John Healey was glowing about the strikes, saying that \u201cthis action shows our UK leadership, and determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, to stamp out any resurgence of [the Islamic State] and their dangerous and violent ideologies in the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank all the members of our armed forces involved in this operation for their professionalism and their courage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Cyprus Mail contacted the British defence ministry and was told that it could not confirm or deny whether bases in Cyprus were used \u201cfor operational reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n
The salience of the UK\u2019s bases in Cyprus has grown in recent years as tensions in the region have heightened, with the UK having bolstered its military presence on the island last summer in response to a back-and-forth of missiles fired by Iran and the State of Israel at one another.<\/p>\n
At the time, the country\u2019s parliamentary under-secretary of state for the armed forces Luke Pollard having said earlier in the week that\u00a0there were \u201cabout 14<\/a>\u201d British Typhoon fighter jets\u00a0stationed at the RAF\u2019s Akrotiri base.<\/p>\n However, he did stress that the UK was not involved in bombing raids carried out by the United States on Iranian nuclear facilitiesat the time.<\/p>\n Earlier last year, it had been reported that the US\u00a0may ask the UK for permission<\/a>\u00a0to station aircraft in Cyprus for future attacks on Iran, with those reports coming after Iran had warned the US, the UK, and France\u00a0that their bases and ships in the region\u00a0will be targeted<\/a>\u00a0if they help to stop its missile strikes on Israel.<\/p>\n At the same time, the UK\u2019s foreign secretary of the day David Lammy, who is now the country\u2019s deputy prime minister, had said\u00a0the country\u2019s bases in Cyprus are \u201chugely important<\/a>\u00a0at this time\u201d.<\/p>\n