Two men arrested and later released during an investigation into a suspected terror plot near a British air base used by U.S. bombers are back in custody on suspicion of working for Iran’s intelligence service.
Police said it was “highly likely” that Iran was involved in the Sept. 27 incident at RAF Fairford, located about 90 miles west of London.
Taken into custody on Tuesday were a 24-year-old British national and a 25-year-old dual British-Iranian national. They were charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service under Britain’s National Security Act, officials said.
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The two men were arrested soon after the suspected terror plot but later released on bail pending additional investigative work, officials said.
“We know the public have unanswered questions. I want to be as transparent as possible and when we are in the position to share more, we will,” Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, said in a statement.
RAF Fairford was used as a forward operating base for U.S. bomber strikes on Iran.
Mr. Taylor said detectives are continuing to investigate the incident.
“Our evidence gathering continues, but at this time our position remains the same: We consider it highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement,” he said in a statement. “Our investigators are continuing to examine what that level of involvement was and the ambition behind it.”
Iranian officials denounced British claims linking the bomb plot at RAF Fairford to Tehran, saying it was done to “advance an anti-Iran campaign.”
“The British government cannot evade its political and legal responsibility for its claims and their potential consequences by hiding behind ambiguous language without providing solid evidence and substantiated reasons,” according to a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry.
“Resorting to expressions such as ‘highly likely’ and ‘almost certainly’ to create the impression that attributing the alleged incident to Iran is credible is an obvious attempt to escape accountability for making baseless accusations,” officials in Tehran said.
After the security incident and terror plot investigation, the U.S. military abruptly withdrew all B-1B Lancer bombers stationed at RAF Fairford back to their home stations in the U.S. Pentagon officials said the decision was made out of an “abundance of caution” because of the security concerns surrounding the suspected Iran-linked plot.
“I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards,” British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in an address to Parliament.
The British government should be held accountable for undermining international peace and security by leveling the accusation against Iran, officials in Tehran said.
“Britain’s track record of fabricating security claims against other countries, which have in some cases led to damaging tensions and conflicts in West Asia, is well known,” the Iranian foreign ministry said.
President Trump said the men were under surveillance before being taken into custody.
“We had them under review for a long time, and we got them,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One following the initial arrest.
The two men, who have not been identified, were among five other people driving three white vans that members of the public spotted near the base and called police about. They were taken into custody but later released a day later after no bombs or explosive devices were found in their vehicles, authorities said.
Neither the U.S. Air Force nor the UK Ministry of Defence has announced plans to send the strategic B-1 bombers back to the base in Gloucestershire. It remains under heightened security while British counter-terrorism authorities continue their investigation.
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