British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday that a security incident at a US military air base in England was “almost certainly” led by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Burnham previously said there were strong indications Iran was linked to last month’s apparent plan to attack RAF Fairford air base, which has been used by US bombers to strike Iran in the ongoing war. “I can confirm our assessment that it is very likely that this was coordinated in Iran, almost certainly led by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” Burnham told lawmakers, according to the AP. “We will not tolerate these threats on our soil.”
On Monday, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to express its displeasure over Iran’s “continued attempts to undermine the security of the United Kingdom and its international partners through its criminal networks, proxy groups and state-sponsored malign activities.” Police have arrested seven men as part of the investigation into the alleged plot, but all suspects have been released on bail and no one has been charged so far.
Many residents near the airbase were evacuated from their homes on September 27 as armed police and army bomb disposal experts swarmed the rural area. Police later said they found a quantity of accelerant – gasoline – in three vans linked to the original five suspects, but no explosives. All the arrested suspects are in their twenties; six are British nationals while one has dual British and Iranian nationality. The United States withdrew its bombers from RAF Fairford last week, and the Trump administration said it believed the base was facing Iranian threats aimed at killing as many American troops and destroying as many American planes as possible.
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