The Australian government has confirmed that the general headquarters of its armed forces in the Middle East, located at the Al Minhad base in the United Arab Emirates, was attacked by Iranian drones over the weekend. Canberra was quick to clarify that there were no injuries , despite the fact that “several drones” were used in the raid.
Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed the information, stressing that all Australian military personnel serving at the headquarters are “ safe and sound .” The Al Minhad base, about 24 kilometres south of Dubai, has been Australia’s main operational centre in the Middle East since 2003 and hosts up to 80 permanent military personnel .
The attack comes in the wake of the large-scale military operation launched by the United States and Israel against Iran, an operation that provoked Iranian retaliatory strikes on Israeli soil and Gulf states.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has come out in support of the US-Israeli operation, a stance that puts Canberra in the camp of countries supporting pressure on Tehran. However, the strike on the Al-Minhad base demonstrates that even states not on the front lines of the conflict are not left out of the cycle of retaliation .
According to the Australian government, about 115,000 Australian citizens are in the Middle East, a fact that increases the burden of diplomatic and military decisions in the coming days. The drone strike on a military installation of an allied country signals that the crisis is entering a multi-level confrontation phase, where bases, command centers and regional security hubs become potential targets.
