UK frees RAF Fairford suspects as U.S. cites Thursday bomb threat briefing

Fuel recovered from vans, no workable explosives found

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that, according to a person familiar with a Thursday briefing, U.S. military officials in Europe had obtained credible intelligence regarding a possible vehicle-borne improvised explosive device aimed at a U.K. military base. The Journal’s disclosure came after British police on Monday released five men arrested near RAF Fairford — the air base that hosts U.S. B-1 bombers used in the war with Iran — following the recovery of fuel but no workable explosives from their vehicles.

Police searched properties in London and imposed strict bail conditions on the suspects as the investigation continued, according to the Journal. Nearby residents who had been taken to local hotels were allowed to return to their homes. British police have not identified the material found in the black drums seized from the three white vans.

The release — after a day-and-a-half in custody, though British law allows detention of terrorism suspects for up to 14 days — has raised questions about the initial narrative and suggests the men might not have intended or been equipped to carry out a major attack, the Journal reported. The Journal added that the men might nonetheless have been part — knowingly or not — of a larger plot.

“Clearly there is a major discrepancy between what President Trump is saying and what we’re hearing from local police,” Roz Savage, a lawmaker representing the area around the base, told the Journal.

Patrick Bury, a terrorism expert at the University of Bath, characterized the case as “a complex one.” “What we can deduce is there’s not enough evidence yet for this to be classified as a terrorist act or that links them to a hostile state,” Bury told the Journal. He added that the men would have been intensively questioned separately and that police likely felt their story “added up, at least for now.”

U.S. officials said they had intelligence pointing to a credible threat at the base, where American B-1 bombers are staged for long-range strikes, and stepped up security in the days before the incident. People in nearby villages told the Journal that U.S. servicemen had not been seen for the past week, leading locals to presume the men were being kept on base for security reasons.

President Trump said he was surprised by the men’s release and told reporters he would not have freed them, describing the suspects as intending “to do serious damage.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News late Monday that U.S. officials still believe the weekend’s incident was serious and “clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor.” British officials have not publicly endorsed that assessment.

Laurence Taylor, the head of counterterrorism police, said investigators were still considering every angle, including whether a foreign state may have been involved. British officials said they were investigating whether Iran was behind the incident, an allegation Iran denied, the Journal reported. U.K. defense officials expressed surprise that Iran would launch such a brazen attack on British soil, though Iran has targeted British bases abroad during the war, including Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and Akrotiri in Cyprus. A state-directed attack on RAF Fairford would be escalatory and would risk further drawing the U.K. into conflict with Iran, the Journal noted.

Several theories have emerged to explain the incident, the Journal reported. Some locals speculated that the men — all from London — may have been in the area to steal fuel from nearby farmers, which would account for the black drums. Security officials acknowledged the coincidence — or misfortune — of choosing a meeting point so close to a major military base at a time of heightened alert.

Another theory is that the men might have been unwitting pawns in a larger operation — perhaps the first stage of a broader effort or a “dry run” for a future attack. Iran, Russia and other states have often used local proxies — low-level criminals — to carry out sabotage or attacks for money without the proxies even knowing the plan or the source of the money, the Journal reported.

The Journal noted that the British government took months to officially declare that a series of antisemitic incidents in the U.K. last year, including a number of small arson attacks, were orchestrated by Iran.

Some British politicians have called for British officials to clarify what they knew when, and whether the Americans have a different version of events. British police said they acted after a tip from a local farmer, but U.S. officials have described a joint intelligence operation. The five men, all from London, were arrested over the weekend.

“Something very odd is going on,” the Sun newspaper said. The feeling across British media and the public was that there are now more questions than answers, though Bury noted that such uncertainty is not unusual at this early stage of an investigation.