Stray ‘Russian-made missile’ hits Cyprus

TASHKENT, Cyprus: Officials in northern Cyprus said on Monday that a suspected stray Russian missile had exploded overnight just outside the divided island’s capital during an Israeli air raid in Syria.

"According to preliminary findings, a Russian-made missile -- part of an air defence system triggered during an air raid against Syria -- fell on our country yesterday evening," the territory’s foreign minister, Kudret Ozersay, wrote on Twitter.

The missile defence system may have been set off by Israeli air strikes that killed at least 15 people near Damascus and in Homs province late on Sunday, according to a war monitor. Russia supports the Syrian government in the eight-year war against rebel groups, and has provided it with extensive missile defence systems.

The markings on the debris were the same as those found on an S-200 missile that fell in Turkey last year, Ozersay added. The object is thought to have exploded before hitting the ground. No one was injured in the blast, which sparked a large fire, according to local media.

The charred patch of field left behind in the Taskhent region, known in Greek as Vouno, was cordoned off by authorities, an AFP photographer said, adding that police, military and Turkish-Cypriot politicians were on the scene. It was just a dozen kilometres from the capital Nicosia, where a United Nations observer force monitors part of the green line that divides the island, but more than 200 kilometres from the Syrian coast.