LONDON — A U.S.-run air base in western England faced Iranian-related threats, and the Trump administration believed the aim was to kill as many American troops and destroy as many U.S. planes as possible, a U.S. official told the Associated Press, after the Pentagon pulled all of its bombers from the base.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, could not describe the nature of the potential attack. RAF Fairford, about 100 miles west of London, has been used by American B-1 and B-52 bombers to strike Iran during this year’s war. The U.S. moved its B-1s out on Sunday, and the Pentagon said all American bombers there had returned to their home bases in the United States.
“We had a threat, and if we’re going to be threatened, we would just move them, and that sort of alleviates that,” President Donald Trump told reporters Monday, saying those behind the threat “would be linked to Iran.” British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there were “strong indications” Iran played a part in a Sept. 27 incident near the base, when police were alerted to three “suspicious vehicles,” BBC News reported. Tehran has strongly denied involvement.
On Tuesday, Counter Terrorism Policing arrested a 22-year-old British man in the Westminster area of London on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts, AP reported. It is the seventh arrest in the suspected plot; six other men have been released on bail. Whitehall officials told the BBC that “there is an ongoing high tempo of threat from Iran to the UK.”
Sources: Associated Press, BBC News
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