UK warplanes down drones in Middle East, conduct 'defensive' sorties for UAE

More US B-52 bombers landed at the UK air force base in Fairford, in southwestern England, on Monday, AFP witnessed, after a first one landed on Friday.

Fairford is one of two bases, along with the Diego Garcia facility in the Indian Ocean, that the UK has given the US permission to use for "specific defensive operations into Iran" to destroy Iranian missiles at source, Defence Minister John Healey said.

"The UK is now conducting defensive air sorties in support of the UAE," Healey told MPs in a statement.  

"Typhoons successfully took out two drones, one over Jordan, the second heading to Bahrain."  

The foreign office separately announced Monday that "as a precautionary measure" dependants of UK embassy staff in the UAE will be temporarily withdrawn from the country. 

The UK's two embassies in the UAE, in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, will however "continue to operate as normal", the foreign office said.

Thousands of British citizens are thought to be stranded in the UAE because of flight chaos caused by the conflict. 

Over 170,000 people in the Middle East have registered their presence with the UK government and three chartered flights have so far taken off, Healey told MPs.

Wildcat and Merlin helicopters have arrived in Cyprus and HMS Dragon, a warship with air-defence capabilities, will set sail for the eastern Mediterranean "in the next couple of days", Healey said, following criticism from the Cypriot government over the speed of Britain's action to defend the island. 

But Downing street earlier dismissed suggestions that Britain is preparing to send its aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, to the region. 

"HMS Prince of Wales has always been on very high readiness," a spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

"The MoD (Ministry of Defence) is increasing the preparedness of the carrier, reducing the time it would take to set sail for any deployment, but there is no decision taken to deploy her," he said.

Starmer and President Donald Trump held a call Sunday about the war, officials said, after fierce criticism of the British premier by the US leader.

Trump had lobbed insults at Starmer over the latter's initial refusal to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran, which began on February 28.

mp/rmb