The incident at RAF Fairford is assessed as highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran and almost certainly directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons.
Andy Burnham made the attribution in a statement covering the United Nations General Assembly and the international meetings that followed, turning to protective security at bases shared with the United States.
He said: “Since Unga, Mr Speaker, we have been in close contact with the US about protective security at our shared bases. I want to thank our police and military personnel for their swift response to the incidents at RAF Fairford and RAF Molesworth. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary will update the House regarding the incident at RAF Fairford, but 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. We will not tolerate these threats on our soil. We will crack down on Iran’s use of criminal networks using our full range of powers to target them and their funding streams.
“And we will bring further sanctions to restrict the capacity of Iran and the IRGC to do us harm.”
Iran’s embassy in London called the claims unfounded and malicious speculation, and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Britain was barking up the wrong tree.
Police were called at about a quarter to one in the morning of 27 September to reports of suspicious vehicles heading towards the Gloucestershire base. Armed officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary arrested five men near Whelford, initially on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act 1875 and then on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act under section five of the Terrorism Act 2006. A major incident was declared, a cordon went up and homes nearby were evacuated while Army bomb disposal teams examined three vehicles.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said on 29 September that no improvised explosive devices had been found and that a quantity of petrol had been recovered. He had said a day earlier that investigators were considering whether the activity had been committed by proxies, knowingly or unknowingly acting on behalf of a foreign state.
Seven men in their twenties have now been arrested, six of them British nationals and one a British-Iranian dual national detained in Westminster on 1 October. The most recent arrest, a twenty-two year old taken in Westminster on 6 October, was reported by this publication at the time. All seven have been released on bail and nobody has been charged.
American B-1B bombers left Fairford on 4 October, with United States European Command saying only that they were redeploying to their home stations and giving no reason. The base is the United States Air Force’s preferred bomber forward operating location in Europe, supported by the 501st Combat Support Wing and the 420th Air Base Squadron.
No excuse not to sanction the IRGC then is there?
I still have a hard time understanding how anyone is released on bail given the implications of this and the apparent evidence suggesting Iran was behind it.
It’s unbelievable. Especially when you consider other judicial decisions recently. It reeks of vested interests string pulling and corruption. We have made ourselves look incredibly weak to our enemies and allies alike.
My theory, based on the limited info I’ve seen, is that these guys had a very rudimentary plan to use drones to drop/pour then ignite petrol on targets within the base.
The head of MI5 told the media today that some nearly 1000 Russian operatives have been removed from the UK since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And the Kremlins global toolkit is weak. some 50 arrests have been made in the last year in reference to Iran backed activities. It’s clear much goes on that we are not made aware of.
Because even under the prevention terrorism act you can only hold someone for 48 hours then you need a warrant that may or many nor be issued and only if the judicial authority is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the further detention of the person to whom the application relates is necessary to obtain relevant evidence whether by questioning him or otherwise or to preserve relevant evidence.
I suspect the police essentially got to the point they had everything they could from a bunch of mules who knew nothing and could not justify the granting of judicial authority.
The anti terror laws don’t allow holding “just because “ essentially as soon as the police think they have come to end of what that person knows or has done and they cannot get more evidence by holding they must charge or release..
Labour are so weak and pathetic – the Iranian mullahs will be laughing their turbans off at Burnham’s – Streeting’s and the Labour Party sanctions.
How the U.K. has fallen – we are an embarrassment and with every passing day more and more irrelevant.
Give over. Your just embarrassing yourself.
You bury your head little one – you are embarrassing yourself
Surprised you could reply after a chunk of Russian bot farms have been taken out. Or just give up on the UK is finished narrative. it must be very tiring trying to come up with ever more anti UK comments.
What are you talking about, the police are following the rule of law.
“Almost certainly” is that like Emperor Donald Jango Trump is almost certainly an FSB asset and a certifiable lunatic? As Intelligence assessments go this is priceless after 7 arrests and half of Gloucestershire under siege for a week.
So, without the slightest shred of proper evidence, the word of our illustrious PM is sufficient?
The rumour mill is all the detained have diplomatic immunity… hence the releases 🤔
British citizens cannot have diplomatic immunity in Britain. Vienna convention essentially states that diplomatic staff cannot be nationals of the host nation and cannot have diplomatic immunity.
It’s essentially bollox.
There is one very specific UK exception around commonwealth countries, in that if the nation is a commonwealth nation its diplomatic staff can have duel UK Nationality and have diplomatic immunity.
But it’s not possible for any of the arrested to have British citizenship and diplomatic immunity as they have all been confirmed as British citizens.
It’s worth being clear on what the rule of law is in the UK.. under terrorism legislation the police can only hold a person suspected of terrorism for 48 hours. Once they have got to that 48 hours they can only do 1 of three things
1) request a warrant from a senior judge warrant may be issued only if the judicial authority is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the further detention of the person to whom the application relates is necessary to obtain relevant evidence whether by questioning him or otherwise or to preserve relevant evidence. For this you need to show that you need the person held for take forward the investigation.
2) formally charge and remand the person in custody until trial, for this you need the evidence level required for the charge and the CPS to test the evidence…
3) let them go, now under terror laws you do have the ability to put license on their release, such as tags and monitoring.
So once they knew these guys were mules and knew nothing more all they could do was charge them if they had enough evidence of an actual crime or release them under license.. it’s not some conspiracy or strange investigation or left wing two tier policing..it’s simply the rule of law.
Am I right, there were 3 vans and one drum of petrol. So share out the fuel, drive through the fence and set fire to at least 3 b1 bombers??? And agree they were low end proxies but what were they thinking this gonna happen??