UK Police officers were deployed to the area of RAF Fairford airbase in the days after the incident. (Getty Images)
UK re-arrests two suspects over alleged Iranian intel links
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- UK Counter-terrorism police re-arrested two men under the National Security Act on suspicion of assisting Iranian intelligence.
- The arrests follow a major incident near RAF Fairford involving suspicious vehicles, bomb disposal deployments, and local evacuations.
- Five men were initially detained after police discovered petrol inside three vans near the airbase.
- Counter-terrorism officials stated it remains "highly likely" the Iranian state was involved in the plot.
Two men have been re-arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service following a major security incident near the RAF Fairford airbase last month, counter-terrorism police announced on Tuesday.
The detainees—a 24-year-old UK national and a 25-year-old dual UK-Iranian national—are being held under Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023 as part of an investigation linked to Iran.
The re-arrests stem from an incident in the early hours of September 27, when Gloucestershire Police received a call at 00:45 BST reporting "three suspicious vehicles" travelling toward the US airbase. Authorities declared a major incident, deployed a bomb disposal team to examine several vehicles, and evacuated dozens of homes in the surrounding village.
Suspected state involvement
Seven men were initially arrested during the broader investigation and subsequently released on bail. Five of those men were discovered near the airbase with petrol inside three vans, leading to initial arrests under the Explosives Act before being further held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.
Tuesday's re-arrests specifically target the 24-year-old man initially detained near the base on September 27, and the 25-year-old who was arrested days later on October 1 in Westminster on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts[cite: 1]. The remaining five men stay on police bail.
"This is very much a live investigation, and our evidence gathering continues, but at this time our position remains the same; we consider it highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement," said Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, Head of National Counter Terrorism Policing.
"Our investigators are continuing to examine what that level of involvement was and the ambition behind it," Taylor added, noting that specialist teams are interrogating numerous lines of inquiry in what he described as a hugely complex and sensitive national security investigation.
