Security incident at US-run air base almost certainly directed by Iran, UK prime minister says

LONDON (AP) — A suspected terror plot at a U.S.-run military air base in England was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Monday.

Burnham previously said there are strong indications Iran was linked to the apparent plan last month to attack the RAF Fairford air base, which has been used by American bombers to strike Iran in the ongoing war.

Police have arrested seven men in the investigation into the alleged plot, but all suspects have been released on bail and no one has been charged so far.

Iran has denied involvement, although it has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.

“I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” Burnham told lawmakers. “We will not tolerate these threats on our soil.”

Scores of residents near the air base were evacuated from their homes on Sept. 27 as armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area.

Police later said they had found a quantity of an accelerant — gasoline — in three vans linked to the initial five suspects who were arrested on the scene, but no explosives.

All the suspects arrested are in their 20s. Six are British nationals while one is a dual U.K.-Iranian citizen.

The U.S. pulled its bombers last week from RAF Fairford, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London, and the Pentagon said all American bombers at the facility had been redeployed to their home bases in the U.S.

The Trump administration has said it believed the base faced Iranian threats intended to kill as many American troops and destroy as many U.S. planes as possible.

The British government allowed the U.S. military to use RAF Fairford for what it called defensive strikes on Iranian missiles and their launch sites following Iranian attacks on U.K. interests and Britain’s allies in the Gulf.

On Monday, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to express displeasure at “Iran’s continued attempts to undermine the security of the United Kingdom and international partners through its criminal networks, proxy groups and state-backed malign activity.”

It also said it added two Iranians, including the head of counterespionage operations in the Revolutionary Guard, to its sanctioned list.

Iran and allied militant groups have previously been accused of plotting or carrying out attacks on U.S., British and Jewish targets, allegedly acting through local proxies.

In a joint statement released Monday, the foreign ministers of more than two dozen Western countries condemned Iranian attacks on their territories through proxies or other means.

“Anyone who conducts hostile activities on behalf of Iran, or any other state, should know that we will take action to identify, investigate, disrupt, and prosecute these acts,” the statement said.