European Allies Rush Forces to Cyprus After Iranian Drones Strike British RAF Base

Greece, France, and Germany rushed military forces to Cyprus on Tuesday after Iranian-backed drones struck the British Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri — an attack that risks dragging all of NATO into the widening Iran conflict. The UK dispatched the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon to defend the island, while the Cypriot government blamed Hezbollah in Lebanon for targeting the sovereign base area. The strikes on a European Union member state's territory represent one of the most dangerous escalations of the war, extending the conflict's geographic reach far beyond the Middle East into the eastern Mediterranean. The drone attack on a NATO ally's military installation could trigger collective defense consultations under Article 5 of the NATO treaty — the mutual defense clause that has been invoked only once in the alliance's history, after the September 11 attacks.