Name: Iran fires missiles at UK-US Diego Garcia base, it is understood | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-21T21:32:25.000Z
Duration: 11 min 30 s
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Iran has fired two missiles towards the joint British American base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Basic passive voice

The BBC understands the attack is thought to have been unsuccessful.

Adverbs of degree

The island part of the chagos is nearly 2,400 miles from Iran and is beyond the range limit that Tehran's weapons are thought to be able to reach.

Well, it's thought the missiles were launched before the UK announced that Americans could use the British bases for strikes in Iran aimed at stopping attacks on the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, President Trump has posted on social media that America is getting very close to meeting its objectives as it's considering winding down military efforts in the Middle East.

Although CBS News is reporting that military planners are working on the option of ground troops.

World News correspondent Joe Inwood reports.

Donald Trump claims Iran's military has been all but obliterated, but it is still firing back.

This was a US diplomatic facility in Baghdad after a drone struck last night.

And it seems Tehran is expanding not just its targets but its range as well.

The BBC understands that Iran fired two missiles at the UK US base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, around 3,700 km from the Iranian coast.

that is far further than their missiles were thought to be able to reach.

It's understood that the attack happened before Sir Keir Starmer agreed that US planes could now use UK bases, for example RAF Fairford, to attack targets that could threaten shipping going through the Straits of Hormuz.

It is a shift from the British government some will see as subtle, others significant.

For Donald Trump in seems to be too little, too late.

I was a little surprised at the uk, to be honest with you.

They should have acted a lot faster from Iran.

The Foreign Minister warning that the shift in policy would have consequences.

Mr. Starmer is putting British lives in danger, wrote Abasaraichi.

Iran will exercise its right to self defence.

Yesterday a missile fragment landed in Jerusalem's Old City, home to sites sacred to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Iran continues to strike targets across the region, including Gulf states, once its allies.

To Israel's north, the Iranian backed group Hezbollah are still firing rockets over the border, which continues to be met with a ferocious response.

Lebanese authorities say more than 1,000 people have now been killed by Israeli strikes, many of them civilians.

Donald Trump is nothing if not unpredictable.

And shortly after saying this, I don't want to do a ceasefire.

You know, you don't do a ceasefire when you're literally obliterating the other side.

He took to social media to say the US Was getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great military efforts in the Middle East.

But ending conflicts is often harder than starting them.

And Iran has vowed to keep fighting, whatever the cost.

Correspondent Simi Jolla Osho told us more about what we've been hearing from the President.

The US is considering winding down its military operations against Iran and that they are close to achieving their objectives, which seem to have expanded since the start of the war to now basically include decimating Iran's military.

It feels like he's sort of defining the parameters of a victory.

And like you've said, Virginie, it slightly contradicts reports that we're hearing from US media, including CBS News, that firstly, the Department of Defense has made detailed preparations to deploy ground troops, although it's not clear under what circumstances the president would authorize that for.

And then you've got the other report that nearly 5,000 Marines and several warships, American Marines and warships are making their way to the Middle east from Japan and from the U.S.

now, when he was asked about it, President Trump said he wouldn't deploy ground troops.

The Pentagon also declined to comment, citing operational security.

But there have been sort of chatter around what circumstance those ground troops could be deployed.

Could it be to increase military action on Hag island, which is a key hub for the Iranians?

Could it be to seize Iranian enriched uranium from Iran?

But what is clear is that the Trump administration is expanding its military options, but

not necessarily expanding its military operations if we're to go by what President Trump has just said.

While Israel has contradicted President Trump's comments about the US Winding down their operations in the Middle East, Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, released a video statement saying that the joint U.

S. Israeli military operation against Iran Iran will intensify in the coming week.

This week, the intensity of the attacks that the IDF and the US military will carry out against the Iranian terrorist regime and against the infrastructure on which it relies will increase significantly.

And the campaign led by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will continue.

Well, as we've been saying, the UK government has now allowed the United States the use of its bases for what it calls defensive operations in the Strait of Hormuz.

I've been discussing that position with our political correspondent Jack Fenwick.

The principle behind the UK's approach has not changed and will not change they say that principle is about the UK only getting involved in what they call defensive operations.

But clearly there are conversations happening in Downing street about exactly what counts as a defensive operation.

A few days ago, it didn't sound like allowing US forces to use UK bases to strike Iranian sites that were targeting the Strait of Hormuz was within that definition.

Now, I think that has caused some concern in Parliament.

We know that there are a number of Labour backbenchers, probably quite a small number at the moment, who think that actually that definition of defensive has perhaps moved beyond what they might have first assumed.

The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have both said that there should be a vote in Parliament on the US use of UK bases.

At this stage, that feels unlikely to me because the government are sticking to this idea that they haven't budged.

But clearly, the more the UK does get dragged into this, events like the Iranians targeting that base on Diego Garcia is inevitably going to lead to questions for ministers about where all this is going.

And there's a lot of pressure, I guess, from both sides on Sir Keir Starmer.

You've got pressure from the US and President Trump, who said that the UK should have acted a lot faster.

And then you've got pressure from his own party and other politicians in Parliament.

We know that Donald Trump has been critical of Sikhistama for not helping out more and more quickly.

Now, I think one of the things which makes Downing street less nervous about that criticism is the fact that they think they are pretty much in lockstep with other allies, and

I think they will want to try and maintain that.

I don't think we're going to see the UK going off and doing something different to other countries.

So that is certainly something in the forefront of his mind.

Labour ministers keep reminding us that the public generally, when asked, seem to be in agreement with the sort of approach that the government has taken.

And the thing that they will be thinking about more than anything else is the impact of this conflict on the economy back home.

We know that ministers, senior ministers, are having an emergency meeting next week to discuss the impact on the cost of living.

I guess it's going to be things like petrol prices, like household bills, like interest rates and mortgages, the cost of food.

All of this stuff is what is really concerning ministers right now.

Well, Matthew Savile is the director of Military Sciences at rusi The Royal United Services Institute.

We've got personnel across the Middle east, in many cases co located with US personnel in places like Qatar and Bahrain.

So we were always going to be in the firing line.

It really is this question about whether we start proactively engaging or whether, as it sounds, the UK government prefers us to remain, largely speaking, defence.

So focusing on UK nationals in the region, but

also our regional partners and countries where we work with them.

So Qatar, where we have a joint combat air squadron, it sounds like that is the government's preferred approach.

And in terms of what we were hearing before that from the U.S.

and those reports that the possibility of boots on the ground is being considered.

I mean, I spoke to someone an hour ago who said, look, this is all part of military planning.

But how much do you think this is a realistic option, given that many experts say the only way to really take back the Strait of Hormuz is by having boots on the ground on the Iranian sides in some form?

Well, I'm not sure that that is the best way to.

I mean, the solution to the Strait of Hormuz in the long term is some kind of political settlement that stops the fighting.

Otherwise, you have committed either a ground force or a maritime force to effectively be running the gauntlet or holding the ground.