NATO said Thursday it has strengthened its “ballistic missile defence posture” after a missile launched from Iran was intercepted as it headed toward Turkey, the alliance’s spokesman said.

“Yesterday NATO increased its alliance-wide ballistic missile defence posture,” spokesman Colonel Martin O’Donnell said in a statement shared on social media.

The alliance’s 32 member states agreed with NATO commanders at an ambassador-level meeting that the posture should remain at a “heightened level” until the threat from what O’Donnell called Iran’s “indiscriminate attacks across the region” subsided.

O’Donnell said he could not provide details about the posture change for operational security reasons. He confirmed, however, that the move came the same day as what he called a successful NATO interception of a missile he said was targeting Turkey.

“In less than 10 minutes, NATO service members identified a threat to Allies, a ballistic missile, confirmed its trajectory, alerted land and sea based missile defence systems and launched an interceptor to defeat the threat,” he said.

Allies meeting in Brussels “again condemned Iran’s targeting of Turkiye,” the statement said, using Turkey’s official name.

Iran’s retaliatory strikes after US Israeli attacks have involved missiles and drones hitting cities and infrastructure across the Middle East.

Turkey’s defense ministry said NATO defense systems intercepted and neutralized “a ballistic missile fired from Iran and detected heading towards Turkey,” without giving further details.

NATO’s assertion that the missile was targeting Turkey contradicted an account by a Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, who said it had been aimed at a base in Greek Cyprus but veered off course.

O’Donnell declined to provide further details on the missile’s target, citing security concerns.

© Agence France-Presse