UK faces growing calls from locals to remove Cyprus military bases

Foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, tells Guardian Iranian-made drone that hit airbase was launched from Lebanon Britain is facing growing calls to withdraw its military bases from Cyprus as locals step up protests against facilities seen as a threat to their security after an unprecedented drone attack on RAF Akrotiri. Anger over the installations spilled on to the streets of Nicosia, the capital, as protesters chanting “out with the bases of death” marched to the colonial-era presidential palace on Saturday amid fears of the Mediterranean nation being dragged into the wider Iran conflict. “They are a danger to our security and should never have been here in the first place,” said Mathaios Stavrinides, decrying the existence of bases that were established as part of a negotiated independence deal for the island. “We want them closed.” The mounting opposition came as the country’s foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, told the Guardian the Iranian-made drone that hit the airbase had been launched from Lebanon, home to the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah and units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Less than 12 hours after the explosive-packed device crashed into the facili