Questions swirl as British police say suspects in alleged airbase terror plot to be released on bail

By Nic Robertson, Tim Lister and James Frater CNN

Fairford, England (CNN) — Five men arrested on suspicion of a plot to attack a UK airbase used by long-range US bombers are to be released on bail, British counter-terrorism police said on Monday.

The five are all British nationals from the London area, aged between 23 and 25, according to police.

The release of the men does not mean that the investigation is over, and all five will be subject to stringent conditions on their movements, Laurence Taylor, a senior officer in the UK counter-terrorism police said at a brief news conference.

The men, who have not been identified, were arrested early Sunday close to the base at Fairford in western England, from where US B-1 bombers have been flying missions against Iran.

Taylor said that police were considering the incident from every possible angle, “including that this may be actively committed by proxies or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state.”

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would chair a meeting of COBRA – which handles national emergencies – later Monday “to make sure we have the full picture” and suggested he may be able to “say more” later in the day.

Interior minister Shabana Mahmood said that, as of Monday afternoon local time, “the scene is now safe” and evacuated residents in the nearby village “will shortly be returning home.”

UK authorities have not disclosed where the men were detained, nor what was found in three white vans they appear to have used.

Aerial footage on Sunday showed a bomb disposal robot roaming between the vans in woods near the base. The rear doors of two of the vans were open and large black items could be seen scattered on the ground nearby.

CNN teams nearby later heard what sounded like two controlled detonations from the direction of the village where the vans were found.

Iranian threat

Iran denied any involvement in the incident. Its embassy in London issued a statement Monday saying it “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.”

Asked if a hostile foreign state could have been behind the incident, British Defense Minister Wes Streeting said on Monday he did not “want to speculate at this stage of the investigation.”

In July, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps specifically noted Fairford’s use by US bombers, warning the UK that “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces.”

US President Donald Trump called the arrests “fantastic,” saying the US and the UK had the men under investigation for “a long time.”

“Working with Britain, it was an amazing job,” Trump told reporters in Chicago. “They were looking to do big damage to our fort and working with the British worked out great.”

“We had them under view for a long time, and we got them,” he said.

UK authorities have not commented on the US president’s assertion. It’s unclear whether the five men were under surveillance before their arrival in the Fairford area in the early hours of Sunday.

“Hooded and masked”

Photographs of the men – shirtless with their hands tied behind their backs – appeared in UK media Sunday.

They were initially detained under laws on possession of explosives and were later additionally arrested “on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act,” according to a statement by counter-terrorism police.

A local resident said she came across the men when returning home on Saturday night.

“Both the driveway and the road were blocked by three white vans,” she said.

The resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, told CNN that the vans were parked in a “strange formation” about 100 meters from the base fence.

She believed there were “definitely” more than five men in the group and most had their faces covered. However, authorities have not indicated they are looking for other individuals and said Sunday the situation had been contained. CNN is reaching out to police on the discrepancy.

Some ran into the field and some towards the neighboring village, the resident said.

She called the emergency services at 1:40 a.m., according to phone records she showed CNN. Within ten or 15 minutes, armed police arrived.

“I think it was pure luck that I arrived in the village at a similar time to the vans,” the resident, a farmer, added.

Multiple UK media outlets – including the BBC, the Guardian and the Telegraph – reported, citing sources, that the operation was not intelligence-led, suggesting the vigilance of local residents may have played a key role in alerting authorities.

Counter-terrorism police said they first received a call “relating to three suspicious vehicles which appeared to be travelling towards the airbase” about an hour before the resident made her emergency call.

Streeting said the resident had “a partial picture” of the situation, adding that the work of the police and the security services “takes place often unsung, unreported, for good reason,” he said.

Tightened security

Local people told CNN that security around the base had been tightened in recent days, with roadblocks at the entrance. But roads and lanes in the immediate area were still open.

The woman who called the police and one other local resident said that during previous conflicts, such as that against Iraq in 2003, there had been heavy security around the base.

But security since the Iran conflict began has been less evident, they said.

In March, the UK government gave the US Air Force permission to use Fairford to carry ⁠out strikes on Iranian missile sites used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Days after the IRGC issued its threat against Fairford in July, Iranian media published a video of a group describing themselves as Iranian patriots at the perimeter fence of the base.

“This is RAF Fairford on British soil — the place where US military aircraft take off from these very runways to attack our people and our homeland,” one man says, with an Iranian flag hanging on the fence.

A US Air Force spokesperson at Fairford – where the 501st ​Combat Support Wing is based – told CNN on Sunday: “For operational security reasons we will not discuss specific force protection measures.”

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