bases

Italian press reports that the government has refuse to authorise US to land bombers at a base in Sicily for transit to the Middle East, where they could be used to strike Iran.

Multiple recent drone incursions over U.S. bases housing strategic military assets amplify concerns The War Zone has been documenting for years about highly worrisome drone flights over these installations and critical capabilities. These incidents, as we’ve noted, present a risk to national and local security.

One of the drone overflights took place earlier this month at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, home of B-52 Stratofortress bombers and nuclear weapons storage facilities, and a key part of the airborne leg of America’s nuclear triad. Another was at an unspecified installation last month, the commander of U.S. Northern Command mentioned in recent written testimony for the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). Both situations took place after the U.S. began bombing Iran in a campaign that has included B-52, B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers. It is unknown at this point if there is a connection, however, as we have frequently reported, the military is highly concerned about drones operating with near impunity over its facilities. In addition to interfering with flights and their potential use as weapons, drones can surveil and map the electronic emissions throughout a base, gaining insight into vulnerabilities. They can also photograph key areas and operations, providing additional valuable intelligence for any adversary.

One of these incidents spurred NORTHCOM to deploy its new counter-drone fly-away kit, designed to give installation commanders the ability to detect, quantify, and defeat small drones that they cannot defend against on their own. We’ll discuss that in greater detail later in this story.

The incursions at Barksdale began the week of March 9, a spokesperson for the 2nd Bomber Wing at the base told us, offering few details about what happened beyond saying “we are working closely with federal and local law enforcement agencies to investigate these incursions.”

The incident sparked a shelter-in-place order lifted later that day.

According to ABC News, a confidential briefing document dated March 15 stated that the “drones came in waves and entered and exited the base in a way that may suggest attempts to ‘avoid the operator(s) being located,’” the network reported. “Lights on the drones suggested the operators ‘may be testing security responses’ at the base.”

“Between March 9-15, 2026, BAFB Security Forces observed multiple waves of 12-15 drones operating over sensitive areas of the installation, including the flight line, with aircraft displaying non-commercial signal characteristics, long-range control links and resistance to jamming,” the document stated. “After reaching multiple points across the installation, the drones dispersed across sensitive locations on the base.”

The document added that more drone incursions could be expected and that they “pose a significant threat to public safety and national security since they require the flight line to be shut down while also putting manned aircrafts already inflight in the area at risk.”

It is not publicly known if there have been any additional incursions since the document was issued. Base officials declined to tell us.

Another incident took place at an unspecified location in February as the U.S. was beginning to attack Iran.

“In the early hours of Operation EPIC FURY last month, a deployed [fly-away kit] successfully detected and defeated sUAS operating over a strategic U.S. installation,” Air Force Gen. David M. Guillot, the commander of NORTHCOM, explained in a written statement to SASC on March 19.

Guillot did not say which base or provide any other details. On Tuesday, a NORTHCOM spokesperson declined to specify which base Guillot was referring to but confirmed there were multiple incursions and personnel used the flyaway kit’s “jamming protocol.”

“We will not name the base nor the type of installation where our Flyaway Kit is deployed in order to preserve operational security,” NORTHCOM added. “Specifically, connecting the Flyway Kit to a specific base can potentially illuminate that base’s vulnerabilities to an adversary. Additionally, by confirming a specific Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System (C-sUAS) platform, we would potentially give an adversary an advantage in circumventing our C-sUAS capabilities at that location.”

So far, NORTHCOM has only one fly-way kit, but more should be delivered “in the Spring of 2026,” Guillot added in his written statement.

The kit currently deployed is produced by Anduril. The company describes it as a “rapidly deployable, modular, and battle-tested counter-UAS system designed to detect, track, identify, and defeat Group 1-3 drones.” It uses Anduril’s Pulsar system for radio-frequency detection and electromagnetic effects to jam radio signals controlling drones. There are also drone-on-drone interceptors. You can read more about that in our story about the system here. 

While Guillot offered scant details in his written testimony, he provided some additional insights into the military’s efforts to counter drones over the homeland. His command is tasked with coordinating those efforts.

“We’ve seen an increase from last year in the number of detections over military installations over the course of the year.,” he said in response to a question from Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), who represents Whiteman Air Force Base, home of B-2s used in Epic Fury. “Some of that might be due to the fact that we have more detection capability now than we did in the past, and then our ability to defeat them has improved. Whereas a year ago, almost every one that was detected was not defeated, now about a quarter of the ones that we detect we’re able to defeat. I pay particular attention to Whiteman and other strategic bases, whether submarine silos or aircraft, and work very closely with Admiral [Richard. A] Correll at STRATCOM to make sure that either through the services or through our own capabilities at NORTHCOM, we are protecting those vital locations from UASs.”

Northcom, Southcom Commanders Testify Before Senate Armed Services Committee 03.19.2026

Whiteman declined to comment about whether that base has seen any drone incursions, citing operational security concerns.

The incursions over Barksdale are reminiscent of those that took place over Langley Air Force Base in December 2023 that The War Zone was the first to report. It remains publicly unknown who operated those drones, which has been the case with incursions at military installations across the U.S. and Europe as well that we also were the first to write about.

That these latest drone flights took place in the wake of Epic Fury is alarming. Iran’s drone capabilities loom large in the mind of U.S. intelligence even here in the homeland. Also, it’s worth noting that B-52s at Barksdale sit almost entirely out in the open and, with just 76 of these airframes available across the force, they are extremely valuable assets and thus potentially very high-value targets. This is especially true since there are just a few that could be regenerated if any are lost. Moreover, Stratofortresses are expected to provide a large portion of U.S. conventional and nuclear aerial strike capabilities for decades to come.

We have been warning about the threat to American aircraft on flightlines from even the lowliest of drones for many years. These warnings have taken on new urgency after last year’s Ukrainian near-field attacks on Russian long-range aviation, dubbed Operation Spider Web. This operation alone suddenly turned what were once theoretical nightmares into very real possibilities.

We will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates when warranted.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

“If they rebuild and you return, we will kill you.” 

That was the threat Abubakar Dalwa received before fleeing to Maiduguri, Borno State’s capital in northeastern Nigeria, on the night of March 8. Abubakar was sitting in the compound of his home in Dalwa, a recently resettled community in Konduga, a few kilometres from Maiduguri, with his children and wife. The children slept curled together on a plastic mat while his wife tended a pot over the fire. It was during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, and she was preparing the meal they would eat before dawn.

Then the gunfire came in rapid succession around 10:20 p.m. The children woke up as Abubakar and his wife rushed them inside the room. Moments later, someone began knocking impatiently on the door.

“Open this door,” the person shouted. Abubakar’s wife clung tightly to him. He stepped outside and opened the door. About ten armed men stood in the darkness. Most wore military camouflage. Others were dressed in black uniforms. Belts of ammunition hung across their shoulders, some trailing toward the ground.

“They told me, ‘Get out and leave for Yerwa [Maiduguri],’” Abubakar recalled. The terrorists said they had come to burn the buildings. “They told me the buildings belonged to the government,” he added. “They said their fight was with the government, not us.”

Abubakar did not argue. By then, it was nearly midnight. He gathered his wife and children and fled into the darkness. “We left without taking anything,” he said.

Behind them, the town burned, and three people were killed: a man, a woman, and her baby. The man’s daughter survived but was shot in the leg. She was later taken to the Maimalari Cantonment Hospital in Maiduguri.

By 2 a.m., Abubakar and his family had reached the city. Soldiers received them at a military checkpoint. They were displaced again. 

The assault on Dalwa was not an isolated raid. On the same night, another attack was unfolding hundreds of kilometres away in Kukawa. A member of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) stationed there said the terrorists attacked around midnight.

“They killed our men, including our Commanding Officer, carted away weapons and vehicles, burnt one building,” he said.

The seizure of weapons and vehicles during these attacks has become a recurring feature of recent raids across Borno, weakening security formations in rural areas and forcing some forces to consolidate around larger bases closer to Maiduguri.

How the attacks unfolded

In Dalwa, the attack lasted about an hour. A frontline member of the NFSS said the terrorists entered the town after overpowering the security units stationed there. “We knew they would overpower us from the first sounds of their gunfire,” he said.

Many of the terrorists carried heavy weapons, including PKT machine guns capable of sustaining rapid fire; others carried rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).

The terrorists strategically positioned themselves in Dalwa. “They went from house to house,” the NFSS member said. “They ordered residents to leave the town.” Then they began setting buildings on fire.

Security officers attempted to resist the attack. They sought reinforcements from Maiduguri, but the vehicles sent to support them ran into buried landmines. Two soldiers were killed in the explosions. “And so we retreated,” the NFSS member said.

According to the volunteer security operative, the attackers approached Dalwa in coordinated groups. One group blocked the road leading to Damboa. Another positioned itself at the entrance of the town near a cemetery on the outskirts. A third group advanced directly into the town to engage the security forces.

“They came through the eastern side,” he said. “That used to be the original Dalwa before the first displacement.”

The security volunteers estimated the number of attackers to be between 80 and 100. Most of them arrived on foot, while others rode on motorcycles, they said.

During the March 8 attack, only about 20 soldiers were stationed in the town. Volunteer forces, including members of the NFSS, CJTF, and repentant terrorists known locally as “the hybrid”, numbered fewer than 100. Five days before the raid, surveillance drones had spotted terrorists gathering in nearby areas. “We anticipated the attack,” the NFSS member said.

But anticipation did not stop it. “The attacks keep increasing,” he added. “More than the previous year.”

In Kukawa, the insurgents used similar tactics. A CJTF member stationed there said the attackers arrived in three coordinated groups. One advanced toward the military base. Another waited on the outskirts of the town. A third group positioned itself along the road leading to Cross Kauwa to ambush reinforcements. He claimed that more than 200 fighters participated in the assault.

“They came mostly on foot,” he said. “They were all wearing military camouflage.”

The fighting lasted about three hours. After the terrorists withdrew, the commanding officer of the base, Umar Farouq, pursued them with a convoy, which was later ambushed, and most of his men were killed.

A pattern of attacks on rural security

The recent attacks on Dalwa and Kukawa are part of a broader pattern. Across Borno State, terrorists have increasingly targeted military bases, convoys, and resettled communities, often ambushing reinforcements and seizing weapons and vehicles during the attacks. Security volunteers say these raids are gradually weakening smaller rural security formations and concentrating forces around larger garrison towns closer to Maiduguri, leaving many outlying communities increasingly exposed.

The incidents suggest a deliberate campaign by terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Their strategy appears to involve weakening security forces, isolating rural communities, and driving civilians out of resettled towns. These attacks are occurring against the backdrop of a significant government policy.

Over the past years, the Borno State government has implemented a resettlement programme to close camps for internally displaced persons and return families to their hometowns.

The resettlement schemes started in 2020 when the state government began rebuilding homes, schools, clinics, and public facilities in previously abandoned communities as part of what was described as a transition toward a “post-conflict recovery phase”. Thousands of displaced residents have been moved out of camps in Maiduguri and returned either to their original communities or to nearby host settlements considered relatively secure.

But the recovery effort depends heavily on movement. Contractors, labourers, and materials must travel from Maiduguri into rural areas. That movement has increasingly become a point of vulnerability. Roads leading to resettled communities have suffered damage or been mined, isolating towns and delaying military reinforcements. When security forces attempt to respond, they often encounter roadside bombs or ambushes along the routes connecting rural communities to larger bases. Military installations themselves have also become targets. Such attacks on bases allow terrorists to seize weapons, vehicles, and ammunition that can be used in subsequent operations while weakening already thinly stretched security formations in rural areas.

On March 5, terrorists attacked a military base in Konduga, burning several buildings. A member of the Nigerian Forest Security Service (NFSS) told HumAngle that several soldiers were killed, and vehicles and weapons were stolen. Two days earlier, on March 3, the insurgents attacked Ngoshe, a town under the Gwoza Local Government Area (LGA) that had been resettled since 2020. The attackers first targeted a military base before spreading through the town and setting houses ablaze. Local sources and survivors said the attack lasted several hours and forced thousands to flee. Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, condemned the attack on March 6, describing it as a “heartless assault on helpless citizens” and directing security agencies to rescue those abducted.

Earlier attacks followed a similar pattern.

On Feb. 14, terrorists attacked a military base in Pulka, about ten kilometres from Ngoshe. On Feb. 5, another attack targeted a base in Auno along the Maiduguri-Damaturu road, according to a military source who asked not to be named. Several soldiers were killed, and vehicles were taken.

On Jan. 28, about 30 construction workers were killed in Sabon Gari in Damboa. The same day, terrorists attacked an army base in the town, killing nine soldiers and two members of the CJTF. A military base in Damasak was also overrun by terrorists, who killed seven soldiers, captured 13 others, including their commanding officer. 

Earlier incidents also targeted reconstruction efforts and security infrastructure. On Dec. 25, 2025, a suicide bomber detonated at a mosque in the Gamboru Market area of Maiduguri. Five people were killed, and 35 others were injured. On Nov. 17 of the same year, workers fled after terrorists stormed a construction site in the Mayanti area of Bama. In the same town, terrorists attacked the Darajamal community in September last year, killing at least 63 people, including five soldiers, and burning about 24 houses.

On Nov. 20, the attackers invaded a CJTF base in Warabe, killing eight people and leaving three others missing. On Nov. 14, terrorists ambushed a military convoy along the Damboa-Biu road. Two soldiers and two CJTF members were killed. Brigadier General M. Uba, the Brigade Commander of the 25 Task Force Brigade, was abducted and later killed.

HumAngle has previously reported that terror groups have undergone several technological shifts that have expanded their attacks and operations, including the use of drones. Despite the violence, the resettlement programme continues. On Jan. 28, the Borno State government received about 300 Nigerian refugees from Cameroon and resettled them in Pulka. The government later received 680 more refugees on Feb. 8.

Why are the attacks happening?

Umara Ibrahim, a professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies at the University of Maiduguri, said the attacks may be aimed at constraining the government’s resettlement efforts.

“Because their movements are observed and monitored, and perhaps challenged, it is not in their interest for resettlement to proliferate,” he told HumAngle during a February interview.

The attacks also serve a logistical purpose.

“Some of their tactics include ambushing and carting away weapons and supplies from peripheral bases in unfortified areas,” the professor said. “It also includes attacks on bases, especially in places where backup might take time to arrive.”

As attacks on rural bases continue, residents and volunteer security operatives say the shrinking presence of security forces in some outlying communities is raising fears that large parts of rural Borno may again become vulnerable.

Many of these families, now fleeing towns like Dalwa, had already experienced displacement. Some years ago, insurgent violence forced them to abandon their homes and seek refuge in camps around Maiduguri. When the government announced resettlement plans, they returned. They rebuilt their lives slowly. Children went back to school. Farmers returned to their fields.

Now they are running again, and the promise of returning home is once again slipping out of reach.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has allowed the US to use British bases for so-called “defensive strikes” targeting Iran, after Tehran started hitting civilian targets. Still, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic explains why US President Trump says the US-UK relationship isn’t what it used to be.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Spain says the United States is not using – and will not be using – joint military bases on its territory for operations against Iran, a mission condemned by Madrid.

“Based on all the information I have, the bases are not being used for this military operation,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish public television on Monday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Saturday as an “unjustified” and “dangerous military intervention” outside the realm of international law, in another break from US policy.

“The Spanish government will not authorise the use of the bases for anything beyond the agreement or inconsistent with the United Nations,” Albares said, referring to the Rota naval base and the Moron airbase.

The US operates at the bases under a joint-use arrangement, but they remain under Spanish sovereignty.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the bases “will not provide support, except if, in a given case, it were necessary from a humanitarian perspective”.

Spain also condemned the retaliatory attacks by Iran on Gulf countries.

According to maps by flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 on Monday, 15 US aircraft have left bases in southern Spain since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran. At ‌least seven of the aircraft were shown on FlightRadar24 as having landed at Ramstein airbase in Germany.

The Spanish position is an outlier among the major European countries.

Britain had also initially refused to allow the use of its bases for an attack on Iran, but on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorised their use for “collective self-defence”, amid Iranian counterattacks targeting US assets across the Middle East and energy infrastructure in the Gulf region.

France and Germany, meanwhile, are prepared to do the same.

The three countries’ leaders were “appalled by the indiscriminate and disproportionate missile attacks launched by Iran against countries in the region, including those who were not involved in initial US and Israeli military operations”, read a joint statement on Sunday.

“We have agreed to work together with the US and allies in the region on this matter,” they stated.

Early on Monday, a suspected Iranian drone crashed into the runway at the United Kingdom’s RAF Akrotiri base in southern Cyprus. British and Cypriot officials said the damage was limited. There were no casualties.

Hours later, two drones headed for the base were “dealt with in a timely manner”, according to the Cypriot government.

The incidents came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer signalled on Sunday that the UK was prepared to support the United States in its confrontation with Iran – raising the prospect that it could be drawn deeper into a war it did not choose by its closest ally.

In a joint statement with the leaders of France and Germany, Starmer said the European group was ready to take “proportionate defensive action” to destroy threats “at their source”.

Later, in a televised address, he confirmed that Westminster approved a US request to use British bases for the “defensive purpose” of destroying Iranian missiles “at source in their storage depots, or the launches which are used to fire the missiles”.

But his agreement did little to placate US President Donald Trump, who said the decision came too late.

UK-based military analyst Sean Bell cautioned against reading too much into the Akrotiri incident.

“I understand the projectile that hit Cyprus was not armed, it hit a hangar [with] no casualties, and appears to have been fired from Lebanon,” he said, citing sources.

Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify the claim.

The broader context, he argued, is more consequential.

The US has taken the action “and everybody else is having to deal with the fallout”, he said.

Iran’s military strength lies in its extensive ballistic missile programme, he said, adding that while some have the range to threaten the UK, they do not extend far enough to strike the US.

“I don’t think [US] President Trump has yet made the legal case for attacking Iran, and … international law makes no discrimination between a nation carrying out the act of war and a nation supporting that act of war, so you’re both equally complicit,” he said.

Bell said that Washington likely reframed the issue, communicating to London that, whatever triggered the escalation, US forces were now effectively defending British personnel in the region.

That shift, he suggested, provided a legal basis to “not to attack Iran, but to protect our people”, allowing the UK to approve US operations from its bases under a “very, very clear set of instructions” tied strictly to national interest and defence.

UK officials ‘tying themselves in knots’

However, concerns of complicity had reportedly shaped earlier decisions, according to Tim Ripley, editor of the Defence Eye news service, who said the British government initially concluded that US and Israeli strikes on Iran did not meet the legal definition of self-defence under the United Nations Charter.

When Washington requested the use of bases such as RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, UK, and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Starmer is understood to have consulted government lawyers, who advised against participation.

Up until Starmer’s televised address, in which he approved the US request, the UK had not considered the campaign a war of self-defence, said Ripley. While Washington’s legal reasoning has not changed, the war’s trajectory has.

Iranian retaliatory strikes – which have seen drones and missiles targeting Gulf states – have placed British expatriates and treaty partners under direct threat.

“The basis of our decision is the collective self-defence of longstanding friends and allies, and protecting British lives. This is in line with international law,” Starmer said.

According to Ripley, several Gulf governments, which maintain defence relationships with the UK, sought protection, allowing London to focus on protecting British personnel and partners rather than endorsing a broader campaign. However, with memories of the Iraq War hanging over Westminster, British ministers have stopped short of explicitly backing the US bombing campaign.

British officials are “tying themselves in knots” trying to describe a position that is neither fully participatory nor detached, he said.

US-UK: A strained relationship

Starmer on Monday told Parliament that the UK does not believe in “regime change from the skies” but supports the idea of defensive action.

But Ripley warned that any arrangement allowing US warplanes to operate from British air bases carries significant risks.

Iran’s missile systems are mobile and launchers mounted on trucks, he said. From RAF Fairford or Diego Garcia, US aircraft face flight times of seven to nine hours to reach Iranian airspace, necessitating patrol-based missions.

Once airborne, pilots may have only minutes to act. The idea that a US crew would pause mid-mission to seek fresh British legal approval is unrealistic, he said.

London must rely on Washington’s assurance that only agreed categories of “defensive” targets will be struck. If an opportunity arose to eliminate a senior Iranian commander in the same operational zone, the temptation could be strong. Yet such a strike might fall outside Britain’s stated defensive mandate. The aircraft would have departed from British soil, and any escalation could implicate the UK, Ripley said.

Bell highlighted another weakness: Britain has no domestic ballistic missile defence system.

If a ballistic missile were fired at London, he said, “We would not be able to shoot it down.”

Intercepting such weapons after launch is notoriously difficult, reinforcing the argument that the only reliable defence is to strike before launch.

The UK, therefore, occupies a grey zone: legally cautious, operationally exposed and strategically dependent on US decisions, it does not fully control.

Beyond the legal and military dilemmas, Starmer must also contend with a sceptical public.

A YouGov poll conducted on February 20 found that 58 percent of Britons oppose allowing the US to launch air strikes on Iran from UK bases, including 38 percent who strongly oppose.

Just 21 percent support such a move, underscoring limited domestic backing for deeper involvement.

March 2 (UPI) — A British airbase on Cyprus was struck by a drone, forcing the evacuation of the facility from where RAF Typhoon warplanes are flying sorties to defend Gulf countries under attack from Iran and as many as 300,000 British nationals visiting or living in the region.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News that the runway at RAF Akrotiri was hit in the strike late Sunday and that “all of the precautionary measures are being taken around the base,” which is near Limassol in the southwest of the island.

No casualties were reported and the Ministry of Defense said damage had been “minimal” and that the base remained operational, but that families of service personnel and all non-essential staff had been relocated to safe locations off-base.

“Our armed forces are responding to a suspected drone strike at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus at midnight local time. Our force protection in the region is at the highest level, and the base has responded to defend our people. This is a live situation and further information will be provided in due course,” the MOD said.

The military was mounting an effort to reassure residents of villages near the base that the threat was to the base and that there was no risk to them or their property.

The attack came around one hour after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a pre-recorded statement posted to social media saying he had given permission to the U.S. military to fly “defensive” missions out of Britain’s base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and RAF Fairford in England.

Earlier Sunday evening, the MOD said an RAF Typhoon fighter jet patrolling the Persian Gulf successfully deployed an air-to-air missile to down an Iranian drone headed toward Qatar. The aircraft was operating out of Qatar after the RAF’s 12 Squadron deployed to the emirate in January as part of a U.K.-Qatar defense pact.

On Saturday, Starmer said Britain was not and would not participate in the military offensive launched by Israel and the United States, having earlier declined to allow U.S. military aircraft involved in the operation to use British bases either.

In his message, Starmer insisted that it remained the case that the United Kingdom was not involved but that developments over the weekend had changed the situation with attacks on interests of Britain and its partners in the Gulf, who were explicitly asking for back up.

“Over the last two days Iran has launched sustained attacks across the region at countries who did not attack them. They’ve hit airports and hotels where British citizens are staying. This is clearly a dangerous situation. We have at least 200,000 British citizens in the region — residents, families on holiday, and those in transit.

“Our Armed Forces who are located across the region are also being put at risk by Iran’s actions. On Saturday, Iran hit a military base in Bahrain, narrowly missing British personnel,” said Starmer.

He said Britain had made it clear it was staying out of the strikes on Iran because it believed the best way forward for the region and for the world was a negotiated settlement but that Iran had still attacked British interests and put Britons in the region at “huge risk along with our allies.”

Gulf countries had asked Britain to do more to defend them and it was his duty to protect British lives, Stamer said.

He explained that he had decided to grant a U.S. request to use British bases for the “specific and limited defensive purpose” of destroying Iranian missiles in their storage depots and the launchers they are fired from on the basis of “collective self-defence of longstanding friends and allies, and protecting British lives.”

With airspace closed across the region, hundreds of thousands of British nationals in Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are unable to get out.

Foreign Office sources told the BBC no evacuation was imminent but the government was preparing for potential scenarios if commercial flights remained grounded.

Cooper said she still hoped to be able to work with commercial airlines to bring people home in previous similar situations.

The Liberal Democrats and Green Party vowed they would force Starmer’s Labour government to seek authorization from parliament for the decisions he was making.

“No matter how the Prime Minister tries to redefine offensive as defensive, this is a slippery slope. He must not let Trump drag Britain into another prolonged war in the Middle East. Starmer must come to Parliament on Monday, set out the legal case in full, and give MPs a vote,” the Liberal Democrats’ leader, Ed Davey, said in a post on X.