Despite the denial by Defense Minister Nikos Dendias that drones shot down over Cyprus were heading toward Souda Bay, as alleged Wednesday morning by Dimitris Koutsoumbas during parliamentary discussions, the Communist Party (KKE) secretary doubled down on his allegations while speaking to Action24.
According to Koutsoumbas, two of the four Iranian drones shot down Monday morning were targeting the Souda Bay base, while the other two were aimed at the British base in Cyprus. “I stated the information I had, which is valid, that of the four drones directed toward Cyprus and Greece, two were targeting Souda and two were targeting Akrotiri.”
“There was an alert at the Souda base, followed by the decision to deploy Patriot missiles to Karpathos. This is the essence, and anyone can draw their own conclusions.” “Iran has stated that all bases are targets for retaliation. It’s a matter of days, and the more we get involved, the more they become targets. The bases, not Greece itself, become targets for retaliation. This will get worse if the chaos in the Middle East spreads,” Koutsoumbas emphasized. The KKE secretary general also spoke about criminal responsibilities within the government regarding the management of the war crisis.
It should be noted that Defense Minister Nikos Dendias denied Dimitris Koutsoumbas’s statements that drones shot down over Cyprus were heading toward Souda. “We had no such information,” he responded to a related question during his interview on Alpha’s main news bulletin. “We have no information, and I believe we would have it. We see the trajectories of any missile or any system that starts either from Lebanon from the area controlled by Hezbollah or from Iran and is directed either toward Crete or toward Greek territory and now toward Cyprus. We haven’t seen anything like that.” The defense minister’s statement comes after what the KKE secretary general had claimed in a conversation with parliamentary correspondents. “Two of the four Cyprus drones were heading for Souda,” Koutsoumbas had maintained. When asked if this was an assessment, he had answered with certainty, “we know it.”
