Reports have emerged indicating that Iran launched ballistic missiles at a military base jointly operated by the United States and the United Kingdom, located in the Indian Ocean.
As the conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran enters its third week following initial attacks, President Donald Trump mentioned on Friday that the US might soon “wind down” its military operations.
In his statements, President Trump noted that the US military is “getting very close” to achieving its goals within this ongoing conflict.
However, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Friday evening, two intermediate-range ballistic missiles were aimed at the Diego Garcia base.
Multiple US officials confirmed to the publication that neither missile reached its target. According to two sources, one missile failed mid-flight, while the other was intercepted by US defenses.
The Daily Mail has contacted both the White House and the Pentagon for their comments on this incident.
Diego Garcia is located on a remote island in British waters and houses US bombers, nuclear submarines and missile destroyers.
The base is around 4,000 kilometers from Iran. The strikes undermine Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s previous comments that Tehran limited ballistic missile range to only 2,000 kilometers.
Reports of Iranian missiles targeting the Diego Garcia military base, pictured above, in the Indian Ocean surfaced on Friday evening
Donald Trump, pictured above speaking to reporters on Friday, accused the UK of being slow to lend the US their military base
The US houses bombers, nuclear submarines and missile destroyers on the base, pictured above
Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the comments last month and claimed that Iran was ‘certainly trying to achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles,’ adding that Tehran’s nuclear capabilities were ‘headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that can reach the continental US.’
Trump blasted the UK government while speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday, accusing British leadership of a slow response to allow the US to use their bases.
‘It’s been a very late response from the UK. I’m surprised because the relationship is so good, but this has never happened before,’ he said.
Trump said that the UK initially did not want to allow the US to use its island for the Diego Garcia base.
Araghchi responded to Trump’s remarks on X, urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to join US military efforts.
‘Vast majority of the British People do not want any part in the Israel-U.S. war of choice on Iran,’ he wrote.
‘Ignoring his own People, Mr. Starmer is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran.’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, pictured above, previously told Parliament that the UK would ‘protect out people in the region’
The minister then issued a chilling warning, concluding his statement: ‘Iran will exercise its right to self-defense.’
Starmer had previously only allowed British bases to be used by the US when targeting Iranian missile launchers attacking the UK and its allies, and not for defending traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
The UK prime minister has stood firm that the country would not be dragged into the war in Iran.
‘We will protect our people in the region,’ Starmer told Parliament earlier this week.
‘We will take action to defend ourselves and our allies, and we will not be drawn into the wider war.’
The US and Israel have maintained that the main motivation for military action in Iran is to prevent the development of a nuclear weapon.
The war in Iran has now entered its third week, but Trump has claimed the US is close to meeting its objectives. Pictured above is a US rocket system conducting missions during Operation Epic Fury
Trump accused the UK of not acting fast as military tensions escalated in the Middle East. The two are pictured above at a meeting in the UK last September
The Trump administration has projected confidence since the initial strikes, with the president declaring on Friday that he thinks ‘we’ve won.’
He added that he did not want to negotiate a ceasefire because the US was ‘literally obliterating the other side.’
Trump then accused Iran of ‘clogging up’ the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway on the north coast through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
‘The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated,’ Trump later wrote on Truth Social.
The president called out allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as ‘cowards’ for ‘complaining’ about high oil prices while refusing to lend military support to the US.
