POLICE REARREST TWO MEN IN RAF FAIRFORD INVESTIGATION

Counter Terrorism Policing said officers re-arrested two men on Tuesday over activity near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. The men, a 24-year-old UK national and a 25-year-old dual UK-Iranian national, are suspected of assisting a foreign intelligence service. Both are from the London borough of Westminster, and officers arrested them under Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023. Police said the investigation relates to Iran. Counter Terrorism Policing assessed that it was “highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement” in the activity on 27 September.

Police stopped three vans near the airbase on 27 September after a farmer reported at 1.36am that they were blocking a road. Officers found no explosive materials but seized a quantity of petrol. Police first arrested the 24-year-old near RAF Fairford that day. They first arrested the 25-year-old in Westminster on 1 October. Five other men arrested during the investigation remain on police bail.

Andy Burnham said earlier in October that Tehran was “highly likely” to have been behind the RAF Fairford incident. The Prime Minister told MPs that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “almost certainly” directed the suspected plot. US bombers have used RAF Fairford. The US State Department issued a joint statement endorsed by more than 20 countries, condemning what it described as Iranian “lethal plotting, arson, sabotage, cyber-attacks” around the world.