LONDON — Five men arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack near a military base used by U.S. bombers in the war on Iran are British nationals in their mid-20s who resided in London, British authorities said Monday, as Iran denied any connection to the alleged plot.
British police did not provide additional details about the suspects, who were released Monday afternoon on bail, or their possible affiliations or motives.
Authorities were aware of “speculation about the motivation behind this incident and the geopolitical questions that are being raised,” said Cerri Evans, a spokeswoman for British Counter Terrorism Policing, but she urged that investigators be “given the space to work carefully.”
The disclosures came as British authorities are investigating any possible connection to Iran.
The men were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act and of violating Britain’s Explosives Act, according to the United Kingdom’s Counter Terrorism Policing network, which is leading the investigation.
The men were stopped early Sunday morning while they were traveling in three vehicles toward Royal Air Force Fairford, a British base about 80 miles west of London that Iran’s security services this summer warned could be considered a target.
Iran’s embassy in London denied any involvement, saying in a Monday social media statement that it “categorically rejects and 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.”
British security agencies have confronted dozens of lethal plots traced to Iran in recent years, a terrifying tempo that exceeds the threat of any other adversary, according to U.K. officials.
But a plot targeting a military base would represent a dramatic escalation of that threat, one that authorities apparently disrupted after receiving a tip from a citizen.
British security services have tracked dozens of individuals and streams of intelligence indicating possible threats to military installations in recent months, officials said.
It was unclear whether the men arrested Sunday were among those being monitored. British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting implied that may have been the case, saying in an interview with BBC on Monday that the individual who called in the tip that led to the arrests had only “a partial picture” of the work of British security services.
Laurence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing in Britain, said in a statement Monday afternoon that the suspects were to be released but that “this does not mean the investigation is over” and that the men would be “subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contacts with others.”
The men’s vehicles were “subject to extensive examination” overnight, Taylor said, without addressing whether explosives were detected. The decision to release the suspects could suggest no traces were found.
Taylor also said that the investigation was considering “every possible angle,” including whether the plot was a case of “activity committed by proxies, or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state.”
A failure to detect the alleged plot would point to lingering vulnerabilities in a country where the domestic security service, MI5, and other agencies have ramped up efforts to track Iran operations, officials said.
The suspected operation also highlights Britain’s status as one of Tehran’s retaliatory targets after the U.K. reluctantly allowed American bombers to carry out strikes on Iran from British bases earlier this year.
Officials acknowledged that the arrests were set in motion after police received a call at 12:45 a.m. to Britain’s 999 emergency line from an individual who encountered the men and was worried by their behavior.
British media reported that the call came from a woman who saw three white vans parked alongside a country road as she returned home from a Saturday night party and reported what she considered suspicious behavior.
The woman was identified in British media reports as a local farmer and resident of Whelford.
Images broadcast on British news sites Sunday showed a bomb-detection robot moving among white vans near the scene of the arrests, as well as shirtless figures seated on the ground nearby, suggesting police may have removed their shirts to check for explosives or other weapons.
The role of the tip in derailing the suspected plot appeared to contradict statements made Sunday by President Donald Trump that the suspects had been under British surveillance.
“We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort,” Trump said. “We had them under view for a long time, and we got them. Thank you.”
British officials said that Sunday’s arrests were not “intelligence-driven,” meaning that the police who arrived at the scene were responding to the phoned-in warning and were not part of a planned operation.
Even so, Streeting, the defense secretary, seemed to suggest that U.K. officials had at least some advance awareness of those arrested and the possible threat to Fairford.
Asked about Trump’s comments in his BBC interview, Streeting said: “It was a proud moment yesterday to see the president of the United States recognize the extraordinary work” of Britain’s security services. He declined to elaborate.
The arrests are likely to lead to a reexamination of the threat level across Britain, where security at RAF Fairford and other sites was already fortified after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began in late February.
At first, Britain refused to allow the U.S. military to use British bases for airstrikes in Iran. Britain’s then-prime minister, Keir Starmer, subsequently agreed to allow the United States to use British bases for “defensive” airstrikes meant to curb Iran’s ability to conduct retaliatory strikes on Persian Gulf allies.
With a fortified runway nearly 10,000 feet long, the Fairford base is uniquely suited for American B-52 and B-1 long-range bombers.
U.S. Air Force planes have landed and departed the airfield in the past week, including a long-range heavy bomber and a military transport aircraft, according to available flight-tracking data.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps singled out the facility for its role in the war in July, saying that any base used to launch strikes against Iran was a legitimate target.
The war has only intensified British concerns about Iran-backed operations. British police have made several arrests this year in alleged plots while facing a surging wave of antisemitic violence.
Four men pleaded guilty last month to an arson attack in March on ambulances operated by a Jewish charity.
Even before the war began, however, British officials were investigating a rising number of sabotage, stabbing and suspected bombing plots, many of them allegedly involving criminal networks or individuals recruited online who may not have been fully aware of Iran’s role in their missions.
In October, MI5 chief Ken McCallum warned in his annual speech assessing threats that his agency has “tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in just the one year since I last stood at this podium.”
Imogen Piper contributed to this report.
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