The United States removed its B-1 bombers from the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford air base after a suspected terror incident, per media reports.
Five men were arrested on September 27th over explosive charges and later on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack after authorities received reports of three suspicious vehicles heading toward the base. Fuel was discovered, though no explosives were found. The men were later released on bail.
A sixth individual, a British-Iranian national, was also arrested and later released on a bail.
On Wednesday, United Kingdom Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the BBC that there were “strong indications that Iran played a part” in the incident over the weekend.
The United States removed all of its B-1 bombers from the air base due to security concerns of suspected plots on the facility, American officials said Sunday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that the American bombers had been redeployed to the U.S.
“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States,” a Pentagon spokesman wrote in an email, per Reuters.
