After examining the vehicles, authorities did not find any improvised explosive devices, but police said they recovered “a quantity of gasoline.”
The men were later released on bail but remain under investigation. Counter-terrorism police are investigating any potential motivation behind the incident.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of counter-terrorism policing, said on Monday that “all possible angles” were being investigated, including “that these could be activities carried out by proxies, or by individuals, knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state”.
Burnham’s comments come after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the RAF Fairford incident “clearly involved the hands of a foreign actor”.
The British prime minister said the government “had been talking all week with our American counterparts to explain what was happening here, how things were done”, and that he had “complete confidence in the way the British security services are handling this matter”.
Earlier this year, the US Air Force was authorized to use RAF Fairford to carry out “defensive” strikes against Iran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned the UK in July that any British military base used by the US to launch attacks would become a “legitimate target”.
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