Man Arrested Over RAF Fairford Released on Bail
A 25-year-old British-Iranian dual national arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts in connection with the RAF Fairford incident has been released on bail. He was detained in Westminster on Thursday, and searches of two properties there have now finished. Five other men, British nationals from London aged 23 to 25, were bailed on Monday. The investigation continues.
A major incident was declared and dozens of homes evacuated last weekend after police were alerted to three suspicious vehicles near the Gloucestershire airbase. One of the men is understood to have dialled 999 himself about an hour before a local farmer reported a large group of masked men near the vehicles — a detail that sits awkwardly with the gravity of the charge and may be why the five were bailed so quickly, in what police called an “investigative decision” that was “grounded in experience and strategy”. Andy Burnham chaired a Cobra meeting that afternoon and later said there were “strong indications” that Iran had played a part, without giving detail. Tehran denies it: the Iranian embassy in London said it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns” what it called “unfounded and malicious speculations”. The base matters because it has been a United States forward operating location for decades, and in recent months American bombers have flown from it towards the Middle East after Britain approved their use for strikes on Iran; in July Iran said any base used for aggression against it was “a legitimate target”. Donald Trump said he was surprised by the bail decision: “We know everything about them, we would not have released them.” Watch whether anyone is charged.