By Tom Cotterill

 

LONDON, 12 March. - (ANA) - British troops came under attack from an Iranian drone swarm at a military base in Iraq, defence chiefs have revealed.

 

UK air-defence troops destroyed two drones, but other devices eluded defences and struck the air base at Erbil, northern Iraq, on Wednesday night.

 

It is the third such attack against British forces, following a drone strike on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and a missile landing hundreds of yards from UK personnel in Bahrain.

 

John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said Russia was aiding Tehran in refining the regime’s drone tactics, which defence chiefs warned were making the air assaults “more problematic” to deal with.

 

Mr Healey said: “No one will be surprised to believe that [Vladimir] Putin’s hidden hand is behind some of the Iranian tactics and potentially some of their capabilities as well.”

 

Defence chiefs confirmed on Thursday that an unknown number of drones, believed to have been fired from Tehran, “did impact the base” at Erbil.

 

No British soldiers were injured during the onslaught. American troops at the base were said to have suffered minor injuries, UK officials confirmed on Thursday.

 

Describing the attack, Brig Guy Foden, assistant chief of staff for operations at Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) in Northwood, north London, said: “Erbil and Baghdad were both struck a number of times last night with increasing coordination.

 

“We have personnel in Erbil who are currently helping with the defence of that base. Last night they shot down two UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] coming at the camp. But a number of UAVs did impact on the camp.”

 

Erbil houses hundreds of coalition troops and is key to the efforts to train Kurdish security forces to combat Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Iraq.

 

It is understood a small number of personnel from 2 Rifles and the RAF Regiment are among the British forces deployed in the region as part of the mission against IS, called Operation Shader. Some British military personnel had earlier moved off the base to nearby hotels in Erbil because of increasing security concerns.

 

A thick column of black smoke was still rising above the air base on Thursday afternoon. Local authorities confirmed there were at least 17 drone attacks overnight. It was not known whether they were from the Shahed range of UAVs developed by Iran.

 

One father, 40, who lives near where US and UK troops are stationed, told The Telegraph: “My children get scared, especially my daughter, by the loud sounds. I’m always telling them to go inside, to stay inside and watch television to distract themselves.”

 

In recent weeks, more than 400 specialist air-defence troops, and several RAF F-35B stealth jets and Typhoons have been deployed across the Middle East.

 

News of the latest attack came as one of Britain’s most senior commanders warned Iran was employing drone tactics used by Russia in its war on Ukraine, making assaults “more effective”.

 

Lt Gen Nick Perry, the chief of joint operations, said there was “definitively” a link between Russia and Iran when it came to Tehran’s evolving drone tactics.

 

He said: “We have definitely seen the Iranian tactics [in] the use of their drones learnt from the Russians. They are flying them much lower and therefore they are more effective. There is no doubt that those tactics have changed and [are] being more effective and proving problematic.”

 

A single drone slipped past air defences at RAF Akrotiri on March 2, striking a hangar reportedly housing an American U-2 spy plane.

 

The drone avoided being shot down because of its small size and the fact it was flying low and close to the water at night amid electronic interference, a defence source said.

 

Mr Healey, speaking during a visit to PJHQ, said British military experts were analysing the unmanned aircraft “for any evidence of Russian or any other foreign components and parts”. The drone is suspected to have been fired from either Iraq or Lebanon by an Iranian proxy force.

 

Separately, some 300 British personnel were “several hundred yards” away from an Iranian missile and drone attack on a US air base in Bahrain on the first day of the war.

 

Mr Healey said the conflict in the Middle East was helping Russia. He said: “The one world leader that is benefitting from the sky-high oil prices at the moment is Putin, because it helps him with a fresh supply of funds for his brutal war in Ukraine.”

 

Mr Healey added that he was discussing what response the UK could take and did not rule out deploying Navy warships to protect vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. He said: “We’ve got hard options, poised to go. I’m discussing additional options with our planners.”

 

On Tuesday, the UK deployed HMS Dragon, a £1bn Type 45 destroyer, to the eastern Mediterranean. It is expected to arrive next week and will be used to defend against missile and drone attacks. No British troops have been injured in the Iran war.

 

Overnight, in the Iran’s new supreme leader first message since taking power, he warned the US to close its Gulf bases immediately or face further attacks.

 

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, had not been seen since US-Israeli strikes killed his father and other members of his family on the first day of the war. But in a written statement aired on Iranian state television, he vowed to keep striking Gulf countries if they did not expel US troops.

 

AB/ANA/12 March 2026 - - -