@DefenceHQ · 9 Feb 2026 · 13:30
At 11:20 UTC the commander of the British detachment at Keflavik agreed a local capitulation under the Geneva Conventions, with ammunition exhausted and casualties sustained. 154 British and French personnel are in US military custody.
The Defence Secretary will make a statement to the House.
154 prisoners and nine dead in six hours of close fighting.
I want to say something about the nine, but the number that has stopped me is 154. Those are 154 people who woke up on Sunday as allies of the men who captured them by lunchtime.
There is no medical word for what that does to a person. I have looked.
Aster interceptors light the sky over Reykjanes at 02:40 UTC. By 11:20 the British commander surrenders with his ammunition gone. By 15:30 there are armed cordons around the Althin…