Police identify five arrested near RAF Fairford as London men in their 20s

Police extend custody as 85 households remain evacuated near airbase

Counter Terrorism Policing has identified five men arrested near RAF Fairford on Sunday as British nationals in their 20s from London. The men were detained in the village of Whelford after reports at 12:45am of three vehicles heading toward the Gloucestershire airbase, which the US Air Force is using in operations against Iran.

Three of the suspects are 24 years old, one is 25 and one is 23, police said. Three reside in Westminster, one in Camden and the other in Willesden. Photographs published on Sunday showed the men being apprehended shirtless near the airbase.

Officers arrested the men on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act and preparation of a terrorist act contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act. The suspects are being held under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and a custody extension was secured until later Monday, according to Counter Terrorism Policing.

Investigators examined the scene overnight and were carrying out a range of activity that had led to multiple new lines of inquiry. Eighty-five households were evacuated from Whelford on Sunday, and a cordon remained in place on Monday pending review. Police said they were using “significant numbers of resources, including military assets,” at the location.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, Counter Terrorism Policing’s senior national coordinator, called the operation “hugely complex and large-scale” and said it involved local and national policing, the Ministry of Defence and local agencies.

“I know this has been incredibly disruptive for local people, but I’d like to reassure them that our activity is in the interest of national security, but most importantly in the interest of their own safety,” Evans said.

“I am very aware of the levels of speculation about the motivation behind this incident and the geopolitical questions that are being raised. However, I ask that at this time Counter Terrorism Policing are given the space to work carefully and clearly,” she added.

Officers have been investigating whether Iran may be behind the suspected bomb plot. In July, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps publicly noted RAF Fairford’s use by US bombers, warning that “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces.”

In a statement on social media on Monday, the Iranian embassy in London said: “The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran to arrest of five suspects in the vicinity of RAF Fairford base.”

The embassy said such speculation “will serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK” and that Iran “reserves the right to take appropriate legal measures, as necessary, to safeguard the rights and interests of the country and its people in response to misleading and damaging media narratives.”