'Reckless' attack on Brit base

KEIR Starmer allowed the US to expand its use of British military sites after Iran launched two ballistic missiles at a joint UK-US base, it was revealed yesterday, an attack Yvette Cooper damned as reckless.

- BY PATRICK HILL and ALEXANDER BROWN Assistant Political Editor

Neither warhead hit the Diego Garcia facility on the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, after one reportedly failed in flight and the other was intercepted by the US.

But it appeared that the extremist regime's missiles have a longer range than previously thought, potentially putting European capitals within its reach. It is thought the Simorgh space launch vehicle was used for the Chagos attack.

The technology could offer Iranian top brass greater range, though at the cost of accuracy.

Retired Royal Navy Commodore Steve Prest explained: "Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up and they come down really fast. If you've got a space program, you've got a ballistic missile program."

Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Seyed Majid Mousavi boasted that new tactics and launch systems would leave the US and Israel 'astonished'.

Foreign Secretary Ms Cooper said yesterday of the Chagos attacks: "This is the latest in Iran's reckless strikes aiming at Gulf partners, at international shipping, at allies and at British interests."

Asked whether the launches were what prompted the Prime Minister's decision to allow the US more use of UK bases, she said: "Our approach to this conflict has been the same throughout. We were not, and continue not, to be involved in offensive action and we take a different view from the US and Israel on this.