UK prosecutors charge two men over suspected Iranian plot at RAF Fairford

U.S. officials describe multistage drone plan targeting B-1 bombers

On Tuesday, British prosecutors charged Nouman Essghir and Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim with national security offenses tied to a suspected Iranian attempt to attack RAF Fairford. Essghir, 24, is a British national from London, while Abdulkarim, also 24, is a British national. Both men were scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday and are the first people formally charged in connection with the incident.

Police said Essghir was arrested near Fairford in September with four other men after parking vans carrying barrels of fuel nearby. On Tuesday, British prosecutors charged the 24-year-old British national from London with national security offenses for inspecting a “prohibited space,” police said.

British prosecutors also charged Abdulkarim with assisting a foreign intelligence service, which police believe to be Iran. Abdulkarim was first arrested in the weeks after the Fairford incident.

Six other men arrested in connection with the plot remain on bail but have not been charged with a crime.

The attack was foiled when one of the five men driving to Fairford called police to alert them. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham previously said there were “strong indications” that Iran was linked to events in which five masked men were arrested next to the base. RAF Fairford has been used by the United States as a staging post for bombers striking Iran.

U.S. officials believe a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recruited British nationals to carry out the complex, multistage attack. The plan included using drones to target B-1 bombers at Fairford, along with a diversion in the nearby neighborhood.

Shortly after the initial arrests, the U.S. moved the bombers from Fairford, according to officials who feared they remained at risk from further attacks. The withdrawal involved 12 heavy bombers stationed at the base. Iran has denied involvement in the suspected plot.

U.K. officials, while acknowledging that Iran presents a risk, question whether Iran had the capability to launch such an attack or mastermind it from within the U.K. Previous Iranian attacks on British soil have generally used comparatively simple methods and targeted Jewish sites or opponents of the Iranian government.

Against that background, Ken McCallum, the director general of the U.K. domestic spy agency MI5, recently said Iran is stepping up its hybrid campaign against the country.

Laurence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing in the U.K., said police have seen a “range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state and, as the director-general of MI5 said just the other week, we are working together to intervene, identify and respond to that threat.”