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Iran launched ballistic missiles at the joint US-UK military base in Diego Garcia on Friday, showing a missile capability that goes beyond what Tehran was known to have possessed.
The base, a strategic airfield that can host B-2 stealth bombers located nearly 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Iran, suffered no damage, according to a person familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity.
The attack was the first time in the three-week-old war that Tehran was reported to have used weapons with that kind of range.
The attack came hours before UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government gave permission to the US to use British bases including Diego Garcia “for specific and limited defensive operations”.


Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi criticised the move.
Weapons with a range of almost 2,500 miles would put major European cities including London and Paris at risk of an attack from Iran.
Still, it was unclear whether Tehran possesses any more of the intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
“Nobody, and I mean nobody, even guessed” Iran had missiles with that range, said William Alberque, a Europe-based senior fellow at the Pacific Forum.
“It means they probably used a modified missile, maybe a prototype,” indicating Tehran still had storage or workshops that could make the alterations.

US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s attack, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Without directly referencing Diego Garcia, the UK Ministry of Defence criticised Tehran’s “reckless attacks”, calling them a threat to British interests and British allies.
According to US media reports, two medium-range missiles were launched on Friday but failed to hit the Indian Ocean facility in the Chagos Islands.
The islands, at the centre of an ongoing diplomatic dispute involving the UK, the United States and Mauritius, are a remote archipelago off the tip of India.
They have been under British control since 1814.

The Diego Garcia airbase 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.
US President Donald Trump has been sharply critical of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to authorise the use of the base for the initial US-Israeli strikes against Iran’s military and leadership, which began in late February.
Trump has withdrawn his support for a UK-backed agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The US may need Diego Garcia to fend off a possible attack by the Iranian military, Trump said on his Truth Social platform in mid-February.
Starmer has described the base as one of the UK’s most significant contributions to its security partnership with the United States.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that attacks against Iran will “increase significantly” in the coming week.
Katz spoke hours after Trump said he was considering “winding down” military operations in the Middle East even as the US announced it was sending more warships and troops to the region and Iran threatened to attack tourist sites worldwide.

The mixed US messages came after another climb in oil prices plunged the US stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian oil loaded on ships.
Iran said its Natanz nuclear facility was hit in an air strike on Saturday but said there was no radiation leakage.
Israel said Iran continued to fire missiles at it early on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country’s eastern region, home to major oil installations. The defence ministry said there were no injuries or damage.
The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 US military members in the region.
Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg and Associated Press


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The attack on the Diego Garcia facility is the first time in the war that Tehran has been reported to have used weapons with such a range


The attack on the Diego Garcia facility is the first time in the war that Tehran has been reported to have used weapons with such a range.


Iran fires missiles at UK-US base in Indian Ocean’s Chagos Islands, 4,000km away

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The attack on the Diego Garcia facility is the first time in the war that Tehran has been reported to have used weapons with such a range

The attack on the Diego Garcia facility is the first time in the war that Tehran has been reported to have used weapons with such a range