US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said there was a foreign actor involved in a suspected bomb plot at a UK airbase that was used by the US to attack Iran.
Five British men in their 20s were released on bail on Monday afternoon as police continued to investigate the incident, which involved “suspicious” vehicles seen near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire in the early hours of Sunday.
British police said on Monday they were investigating whether individuals acting for a foreign state were involved in the apparent plot. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in July that the base was a legitimate target.
Masked suspects were detained on suspicion of explosives offences and terrorism after barrels of material were found in the back of three vans. They were pictured at the scene, stripped of their clothes. An investigation found no viable explosives at the scene of the men’s arrest, a UK official told Bloomberg.
Their release caused confusion and surprise about an incident that authorities had only a day earlier described as a serious attempted attack that had been disrupted at a late stage. The nearby village of Whelford had been evacuated and bomb-disposal robots had been sent in.
Without providing evidence or specifying details, Mr Rubio said: “What happened, what almost happened, what could have happened in the UK over the weekend is a very serious situation.
“It’s one that clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor. I won’t get into great detail about that yet,” Mr Rubio said on the Fox News network’s Hannity programme late on Monday.
US President Donald Trump said at the White House on Monday that the incident “might be” connected to Iran and that he would not have released the suspects on bail. “I wouldn’t have done that,” he said.
On Sunday, Mr Trump praised the arrests near RAF Fairford, which he said had prevented “big damage” to a base that has served as a key launching pad for US air strikes on Iran, and suggested the individuals involved had been under surveillance. “We had them under view for a long time,” he said.
A farmer said that she saw a group of men wearing balaclavas near the base shortly after midnight on Sunday and called the police, raising questions about whether the alleged plot was on the radar of the security services.
UK Counter Terrorism Policing chief Laurence Taylor said the investigation would continue despite the decision to release the men from custody.
“This does not mean the investigation is over,” Assistant Commissioner Taylor said on Monday afternoon. “They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others. They absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry.”
AC Taylor said police were investigating whether the incident involved “activity committed by proxies or individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state”.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham broke from his schedule at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool to convene an emergency security meeting to discuss the case. Cabinet ministers used their speeches from the conference floor to reassure voters that the threat was under control.
“It is a reminder that at a time of heightened threat we must all remain vigilant,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who is responsible for domestic security, told the conference. “And to all those who mean us harm and plot violence on our soil, let this be a reminder: you will never defeat us.”
RAF Fairford serves as the preferred bomber forward-operating site in Europe for the US Air Force Global Strike Command. Mr Burnham in July approved the use of the base by the US for “defensive strikes” on Iran, continuing the policy of his predecessor, Keir Starmer.
The Iranian Embassy in London said it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns” what it dismissed as “unfounded and malicious” attempts to link the case to Iran. Such speculation would “serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK”, the embassy said in a statement posted on X.
After the Fairford arrests, the US embassy issued a security alert saying US citizens should exercise caution and be “mindful of personal security”. Security was stepped up at other US airbases in Britain.