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Revealed: America’s secret special forces flights to Israel from UK base on Cyprus (www.declassifieduk.org)

submitted 4 months ago by flamingos to c/uk_politics

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The US Air Force has been sending unmarked planes from Britain’s base on Cyprus to Israel since it began bombing Gaza, it can be revealed.

The planes are all C-295 and CN-235 aircraft, which are believed to be used by American special forces.

Declassified has found 18 of these aircraft which have gone from the sprawling British air base on Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri, to Israel’s coastal city Tel Aviv since October 7.

[RAF] Akrotiri is the key node in the international effort to arm and provide logistical support for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

But the UK government has always refused to divulge any information about US activities at Akrotiri, which is known to include transporting weapons to Israel.

Asked in May how many US Air Force (USAF) flights had taken off from the base since October 7, [then] defence minister Leo Docherty said: “The Ministry of Defence does not comment on the operations of our Allies.”

But Declassified discovered the unmarked planes that flew from Akrotiri to Israel from November to June have a serial number showing they are operated by the USAF. Most of these journeys had the flight number GONZO62.

Six more unmarked C-130 planes have gone from Akrotiri to Tel Aviv since the bombing of Gaza began, which are believed to be USAF, but it was not possible for Declassified to locate their operator.
[…]
A spokesperson for the UK Ministry of Defence would only tell Declassified: “In response to the situation in Israel and Gaza, we are working with international partners to de-escalate the conflict, reinforce stability and support humanitarian efforts in the region. Any use of UK bases will be in line with these objectives.”

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[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Doesn't it mean that the UK government is enabling war crimes?

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 8 points 4 months ago

It ever stopped?

[–] wewbull 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not unless US special forces are targeting civilian targets. That I find highly doubtful. They will be targeting highly specific targets. It's what those units do.

They are probably trying to remove Israel's excuses for the genocide by achieving goals surgically.

[–] flamingos 5 points 4 months ago

The special forces talked about in the article is 427th Special Operations Squadron, who are a logistics operation. The claim the article is making is that Akrotiri is being used by the US to supply Israel with weapons, not that the US is deploying troops directly into the Gaza. If the US/UK know beforehand that these weapons will be used to do war crimes (which they absolutely do), then they could be charged with war crimes.