RAF Fairford: Rubio says ‘foreign actor’ behind suspected plot as some evacuated residents begin to return home – latest updates | UK news
Some evacuated residents reportedly return home although others are hesitant to do so
Residents in the Cotswold village of Whelford were told yesterday they were able to return home after being advised to temporarily evacuate to a local leisure centre.
About 85 households in Whelford were evacuated early on Sunday morning as a precaution due to the major police incident declared around RAF Fairford.
One local resident has since told the BBC that while most people have now returned home, others are hesitant to do so.
“I haven’t gone home as I want to wait until I know more about what the hell happened, as it feels super dodge to me,” the resident told the BBC, adding that police are advising people not to take any photos and to stay inside their properties.
A cordon remains in place around three vans which are being examined by counter-terrorism police near RAF Fairford, two days after the incident.
Here are some of the latest images from the scene that have been sent to us over the newswires:
Key events
Jason Rodrigues
Jason Rodrigues is a researcher and writer in the Guardian’s research department
Having an RAF base on its doorstep keeps residents of Fairford on alert, particularly when military aircraft use it to fly to war zones, as now, with US bombers using the base to attack Iran.
This raises the possibility of the Gloucestershire site and surrounding area becoming targets for retaliatory attacks.
Fairford residents were conscious of the risk during the first Gulf war (1990-91), when Iraq invaded Kuwait, prompting a US-led coalition, including the UK, to attack Iraqi forces.
The Guardian sent a reporter to Fairford to gauge how local people felt about potentially being in the firing line. The result was a mixture of trepidation and eagerness to welcome US military personnel, whose B-52 bombers were due to be stationed at the base.
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The UK gave the US permission in March to use Fairford for “specific defensive operations into Iran” to destroy Iranian missiles at source.
US bombers and other planes have since been seen taking off and landing from the base – the only one on Britain’s mainland used for this purpose.
A B1-b Lancer bomber was pictured taking off from the base this morning despite the ongoing security situation around the site.
Jamie Grierson
An MP and councillors representing the residents of the village near RAF Fairford who were evacuated due to the suspected plot have expressed scepticism and concern over the security response to threats made by Iran.
Roz Savage, the MP for South Cotswolds, said she had many questions about the circumstances of how the alleged plot was averted. The Liberal Democrat MP, whose constituency covers the military base, said she would be writing to the prime minister and the defence secretary with her concerns.
“Ever since it was first announced six months ago that RAF Fairford was going to be used as the base for US military airstrikes on Iran, I’ve been asking questions of the government about whether they can assure my residents, my constituents, of their safety,” she said.
“They had given that assurance. However, I feel that the events of this weekend do cast that into doubt.”
She went on: “Who knew what? When did they know it? Where was the ball dropped? What more could have been done to secure the safety and security of my constituents?”
There have been conflicting statements about who knew what and when. A farmer from Whelford told reporters she called police in the early hours of Sunday to report suspicious activity – which then triggered a rapid response.
But the US president, Donald Trump, also suggested to reporters the men had been under surveillance.
Tristan Wilkinson, a cabinet member for Cotswold district council and councillor for the Lechlade, Kempsford and Fairford South ward, which covers Whelford, said: “The American president indicated last night in front of journalists that there was some intelligence and that these individuals were under surveillance.
“If that was to be true, that they would have been allowed to get so close to the base and drive what was, at the time, believed to be bombs into residential areas of a small village, I can’t imagine the security services allowing that to happen.”
Some evacuated residents reportedly return home although others are hesitant to do so
Residents in the Cotswold village of Whelford were told yesterday they were able to return home after being advised to temporarily evacuate to a local leisure centre.
About 85 households in Whelford were evacuated early on Sunday morning as a precaution due to the major police incident declared around RAF Fairford.
One local resident has since told the BBC that while most people have now returned home, others are hesitant to do so.
“I haven’t gone home as I want to wait until I know more about what the hell happened, as it feels super dodge to me,” the resident told the BBC, adding that police are advising people not to take any photos and to stay inside their properties.
A cordon remains in place around three vans which are being examined by counter-terrorism police near RAF Fairford, two days after the incident.
Here are some of the latest images from the scene that have been sent to us over the newswires:
Iran has previously said it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target. But Iran’s embassy in London yesterday strongly rejected any speculation linking the country to the arrests of the five suspects near RAF Fairford.
The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, has looked into the claims of a possible Iranian link to the alleged RAF Fairford plot. Here is an extract from his analysis:
RAF Fairford is the European home for US air force bombers, essentially an American base on British soil. It has been used by the US in its bombing campaign against Iran, after the former prime minister Keir Starmer agreed to allow American strikes on Iranian missile launch sites in the war Donald Trump started in the spring.
The base has also been a source of explicit interest to Tehran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement on 23 July, as the US carried out a 13th day of consecutive bombing attacks. It said that any bases used by the US to attack Iran, including Fairford, were “legitimate targets”…
Tehran has been trying to step up attacks on targets in the west over the past three years, as fighting in the Middle East has sprawled and expanded after October 2023, and particularly after Trump joined Israel to start a full-scale war on Iran in February. But while its propagandists make heavy threats about British military bases online, Iran’s actual threat is mixed.
What we know about the suspected plot at RAF Fairford
Vikram Dodd
Five men arrested over a suspected plot at RAF Fairford have been released on bail as police investigate why they were so close to the airbase in three vans with suspicious material in the back. The five suspects were revealed to be British men, all in their 20s and from London.
Their release on police bail suggests detectives believe it is unlikely they were on the brink of a mass casualty attack by exploding a bomb close to the base, sources said.
An Iranian link is still under investigation, as is whether any of the five were paid to gather in the village of Whelford, two miles from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
An initial examination of the vans led police to suspect they carried explosive materials, with assessments made as to whether they were viable improvised explosive devices. After the suspects’ release on Monday it emerged that no explosive material had been found.
The head of UK counter-terrorism policing, the assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor, said the release of the men on bail did not mean the investigation was over and that they were subject to “stringent conditions”.
The suspects were arrested after a farmer driving home from a party spotted them. She said she believed they were wearing balaclavas and they ran away when her headlights illuminated them. She then called the police.
Donald Trump has suggested the plot was known to the US authorities. But British sources suggested the specific activities of the men were unknown. You can read more here:
RAF Fairford incident ‘clearly involves’ foreign actor, US secretary of state says
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told Fox News last night that it was clear a “foreign actor” had been involved in the suspected plot at RAF Fairford, a British base that houses American bombers that fly missions against Iran.
“I have to be careful, there are some things I cannot say on the air for a lot of different reasons,” he told Fox News’ Hannity programme.
“Suffice it to say, that 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,” Rubio said, without providing evidence or giving further details.
“We are dealing with elements in the world and in the case of Iran, for example, who have openly threatened to attack American interests globally. We are always going to take that very seriously.”
Rubio said the UK authorities had been “very cooperative” in relation to the “serious incident” and have been “on top of it”.
He said “a lot of people are disturbed” by the fact the five suspects who were arrested on suspicion of terror offences were released on bail on Monday.
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The US president, Donald Trump, went further in his comments, telling reporters at the White House he would not have released the suspects on bail. “We know everything about them. We would not have released them,” the president said.
Asked whether the case was linked to Iran, Trump said: “It might be.”
The five suspects – all British nationals from London in their 20s – were arrested in Gloucestershire on Sunday morning on suspicion of explosives offences and preparing an act of terrorism, with an Iranian link a key line of inquiry.
While the head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor, acknowledged there was speculation over whether Iran was behind the incident, he insisted the force was considering “every possible angle”. The investigation is continuing and police are yet to establish a motive.
I trust UK’s police judgement on suspects, Labour’s deputy leader says
We are restarting our live coverage of the major incident at RAF Fairford after five British nationals who were arrested over the suspected plot were released on bail yesterday.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, suggested the suspected plot involved the hand of a foreign actor, and both him and the US president, Donald Trump, have expressed concern and surprise at the news that the suspects were released on bail.
Speaking at the Labour party’s conference in Liverpool this morning, Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, refused to provide details on what she said was a live police investigation.
“Bail and those kind of decisions are operational decisions for the police and they are not taken by ministers, and nor should they ever be. And I am very grateful and I trust our police and the judgments that they come to,” she told Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge.
Stay with us as we give you the latest updates on the investigation while enquiries continue.
