Base is home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel

Iran unsuccessfully targets UK-US Diego Garcia base, shows its missiles can reach Western Europe

Regime fires two missiles fired at US-UK Indian Ocean base 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) away; state media outlet boasts missile range ‘is beyond what the enemy previously imagined’

Iran was “unsuccessful” in targeting the joint UK-US Indian Ocean military base at Diego Garcia, a UK official source confirmed on Saturday, a day after the Wall Street Journal reported Tehran fired two ballistic missiles at the base but failed to hit it.

The source said the “unsuccessful targeting of Diego Garcia” took place before the UK government announced Friday that it would allow the United States to use some of its bases to target Iranian sites being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz. CNN reported that the attack took place on Friday morning.

The Iranian attack on the Diego Garcia air base — located about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Iran — indicated Tehran has in its stockpile missiles that can travel much further than it had previously acknowledged.

Missiles of that range would put most of Western Europe in range of Iran’s missile arsenal.

Iran has until now said it had a self-imposed limit on its ballistic missile program, limiting their range to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles). However, US officials long have alleged Iran’s space program could allow it to build intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency on Saturday also confirmed the attempted strike, saying that targeting the base was a “significant step … that shows that the range of Iran’s missiles is beyond what the enemy previously imagined.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that one of the intermediate-range ballistic missiles failed in flight, and the other was targeted by an interceptor fired from a US warship, though it was not clear if the missile was hit.

UK officials have not given details of the attempted strike.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday that Iran’s “lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies.”

Britain has not participated in US-Israeli attacks on Iran, but has allowed American bombers to use UK bases to attack Iran’s missile sites.

On Friday, the British government said US bombers can also use UK bases, including Diego Garcia, in operations to prevent Iran attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran targeted the base before that UK statement.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Diego Garcia is one of two bases Britain is allowing the United States to use for “defensive” operations in Iran.

The air base is home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel and has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the tip of India. The islands have been under British control since 1814.

They are at the center of a UK spat with President Donald Trump over Britain’s plans to hand sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius. Britain would then lease back the Diego Garcia base.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the move will safeguard the base’s future, which is currently vulnerable to legal challenge. The Trump administration initially welcomed the deal, but in January Trump called it “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY.”