Grenadier Guards drill in abandoned Cyprus village

Soldiers of the Grenadier Guards have been training through the abandoned village of Paramali near Episkopi during Exercise Kronos Warrior, using the deserted settlement to practise close-quarter infantry skills in Cyprus.

The Guards involved were drawn from The King’s Company and Number Two Company, working through low-level tactical drills at both platoon and company strength. The village, abandoned in the 1970s and sitting within the Western Sovereign Base Area, offers a built-up setting that is rare for training units to access, allowing troops to rehearse movement and fighting among standing structures rather than on open ranges.

Paramali lies inside the British Sovereign Base Area at Episkopi, one of two such areas the United Kingdom retains on the island alongside Dhekelia. The bases cover 98 square miles and give the UK a permanent military foothold at a strategic point in the Eastern Mediterranean, a position that has carried added weight as instability across the wider region has drawn on forces staged from Cyprus.

The British Army garrison in Cyprus operates under a tri-service headquarters and is tasked with protecting the Sovereign Base Areas and associated retained sites. According to the Ministry of Defence, that presence includes two resident infantry battalions together with supporting arms, among them the Royal Logistic Corps, the Royal Army Medical Service, the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Military Police, distributed across both base areas. The garrison’s soldiers are held ready to support the UK’s response to crisis in the region.

The Army in Cyprus also undertakes roles that reach outside conventional soldiering. It supports the local police in counter-poaching operations and contributes troops to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus under Operation Tosca, the long-running mission established to maintain stability on an island divided since the 1970s.