British police surprised observers Monday afternoon by announcing the release on bail of five suspects arrested a day earlier near RAF Fairford with vans loaded with explosives, in what authorities suspect was an attempted terrorist attack.
The announcement came shortly after police revealed that all five suspects are British citizens, all London residents between the ages of 23 and 25. Counterterrorism police said they were still investigating the suspects’ motives and that the arrests had opened several new lines of inquiry.
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The five detainees on the sidewalk near the village of Walford, after being stripped, undergo a search
(Photo: From X)
Shortly afterward, Lawrence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, announced that the suspects had been released under restrictive conditions. He said investigators were keeping an “open mind” about the possibility of a “geopolitical” motive behind the suspected attack, amid reports that the probe is examining whether Iran sent the five men to target RAF Fairford, a base used by the U.S. Air Force and from which American bombers flew strike missions against Iran during the war.
“This does not mean the investigation is over,” Taylor said Monday afternoon as he announced the suspects’ release. “They are subject to strict conditions restricting their movements and their contact with others.”
He added that investigators were examining, among other possibilities, whether the suspects had acted, knowingly or unknowingly, on behalf of a “foreign state.”
An aircraft at Fairford Air Force Base, which serves as a "forward outpost" for the US Air Force
(Photo: Reuters)
Earlier, Iran denied that it was behind the suspected terrorist attack. In a statement, the Iranian Embassy in London said the Islamic Republic “categorically rejects and strongly condemns the malicious and baseless speculation” surrounding the arrests near the base, adding that such speculation would only serve to “fuel Iranophobia in Britain.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced Monday afternoon that he would convene his Cabinet for an emergency meeting over the incident.
British police declared a “major incident” Sunday morning in the village of Whelford near RAF Fairford, a Royal Air Force base used by the U.S. Air Force and from which American aircraft flew missions against Iran. Hours later, it emerged that five men had been arrested there on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.
The three suspicious vans
(Photo: Reuters)
Three suspicious vans were found in connection with the suspects and examined by Army bomb disposal experts. Photos taken by a local resident showed the detainees sitting shirtless on the roadside, their hands cuffed behind their backs, as they were searched by British security forces. Police initially arrested the men on suspicion of offenses under the Explosives Act and later also on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.
It later emerged that the suspects were detained only about 320 meters from the base. British media reported that security authorities were examining whether Iran had sent them to carry out the attack, after Tehran threatened in July to target bases such as Fairford if U.S. aircraft continued taking off from them for strikes inside Iran.
During the latest war, Britain initially prevented the United States from using British bases to carry out strikes in Iran. Then-prime minister Keir Starmer later allowed the Americans to launch “limited” operations from them against Iranian missile sites, particularly sites used to launch attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Police said Monday that all five suspects are British citizens, all London residents between the ages of 23 and 25. Counter Terrorism Policing said investigators were still working to establish their motives and that the arrests had opened several new lines of inquiry.
Farmer spots ‘Middle Eastern’ men in balaclavas
Questions have meanwhile intensified over what British and American intelligence knew about the suspected plot and how close the alleged attackers were to carrying it out.
Hours after news of the arrests broke Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that the arrest was “fantastic,” adding that the United States and Britain had worked together to capture the suspects and that the cooperation had “worked out great.”
A checkpoint near the base
(Photo: Reuters)
Trump said the suspects had been under U.S.-British surveillance for a long time and claimed they intended “to do big damage to our fort,” apparently referring to RAF Fairford.
His remarks appeared to contradict earlier accounts from Britain suggesting that local residents had first become suspicious and alerted emergency services. British media subsequently reported that local police had no advance knowledge of the alleged plot and had acted not on prior intelligence, but on a real-time warning from members of the public. The Guardian reported that the operation was not intelligence-led.
Adding to those questions was the account of a farmer from Whelford, the village adjoining the base, who said she was the person who called the 999 emergency line late at night to report the suspicious behavior of the five men who were eventually arrested.
According to reports, at about 12:45 a.m., the farmer was driving home from a party when she noticed three vans blocking a quiet country road around the base. Puzzled, she made a U-turn and then saw men she described as appearing Middle Eastern, wearing balaclavas and hoodies, scattering toward the trees and across fields in the direction of the base.
The search for the suspects
The quick-thinking farmer, already being described in Britain as a “hero,” called police and then sent a message to the village WhatsApp group warning residents and urging them to lock their doors. Police arrived at the scene within 15 minutes and arrested the five men about 10 minutes later.
The woman, who asked British media not to identify her because of security concerns, believes the chance encounter startled the group.
“They must have seen the bright lights of the car,” she said. “They probably thought we were the police and panicked. It looks like by doing that I basically disrupted whatever they were planning.”
She said the vans appeared suspicious because a phone number and lettering displayed on them looked fake. According to reports, the phone number displayed on one of the vehicles carried a Sheffield-area code but was missing a digit. Fuel2U, a fuel delivery company based in Beaconsfield whose name appeared on the vans, said the vehicles had no connection to the company.
Did police miss the warning signs? ‘She only has part of the picture’
“Thinking about it now, and what could have happened if they had tried to stop me from driving away, I was extremely lucky,” the farmer told The Daily Telegraph.
“It is quite astonishing to realize that you were face to face with potential terrorists and may have foiled a terror plot. It was obvious they had just arrived there. Thank God we spotted them. I just thought, ‘What the hell are they doing?’
“I saw a group of young men who looked Middle Eastern running through the trees. Some had masks or balaclavas, and they all scattered in front of us as we drove back past them. Some ran into the fields and some ran in the direction of the air base.
“We realized this was something very serious. We knew the air base had already faced a genuine threat of a terrorist attack before last night. So the moment I saw them, I was concerned. You cannot see masked people running around at 1:30 in the morning in the countryside beside a secure air base and not be worried.”
The farmer added that it appeared police had been “asleep at the wheel.”
British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting
(Photo: Jon Super/AP)
Yet while the farmer’s account and those of other residents suggest civilians may have prevented the alleged attack, and although British authorities said the arrests had not been planned in advance, British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting appeared Monday afternoon to hint otherwise, in comments that lent some support to Trump’s assertion that the suspects had been under surveillance.
Responding to the farmer’s claim that authorities had been “asleep at the wheel,” Streeting praised her quick thinking and civic responsibility but insisted that she had only a “partial picture” of events, while declining to provide further details.
“She did exactly what we would hope someone in such an unusual situation would do, and I am genuinely grateful to her,” he said. “I think she acted, as she herself described, quickly and sensibly, and she did the right thing. With respect, she only has a partial picture, and I am not prepared to say anything beyond that at this stage.”
The farmer later criticized Streeting’s remarks, saying police had still not spoken to her.
“I know it was said today by some people at the top that I didn’t have the full picture, but the picture I had was three extremely unusual vehicles parked in the middle of our village and a group of unidentified men running around,” she said. “So that’s my picture, and I don’t know whether it’s the full picture or not.”
She added: “I don’t know how he knows what picture I have. I’ve never met him. It’s just that nobody in any official capacity has contacted me or anyone else in the village — no follow-up whatsoever, even now, from the police, who had my number when I made the 999 call. So it’s just very puzzling.”
The farmer also claimed that, in addition to the five men who were arrested, she saw other men fleeing through the fields after the encounter, something she said raised further questions.
First published: 19:11, 09.28.26