What to know about suspected plot to attack UK RAF base used by US?

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Iran denied involvement on Monday in a suspected plot to attack a British airbase used by the US to strike Iranian sites, and police said five men arrested over explosives and terrorism offences were British nationals.

Below is what is known so far about the incident at RAF Fairford: 

WHAT HAPPENED AT FAIRFORD?

Police were called to the airbase, 90 miles (145 km) west of London, early on Sunday morning by a local farmer who said she had seen three large white vans parked near the base and a group of “hooded and masked men” running into a field nearby.

Armed officers from the local force, Gloucestershire Police, responded and arrested five men in the Whelford area, about a mile from the base.

The five men were initially arrested on suspicion of offences under the explosives act and later on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act after counter-terrorism police took over the investigation.   

About 85 households were evacuated from properties near where the three vehicles were found and a 400-metre cordon was put in place around them. 

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE MEN WHO WERE ARRESTED?  

Counter Terrorism Police said in a statement on Monday that the five men detained were all British nationals aged between 23 and 25 who lived in London.

An image on social media purported to show some of the suspects, seated shirtless with hands behind their backs, after their arrest. Reuters was unable to independently locate and verify the source of the photograph. 

WHY WOULD FAIRFORD BE A TARGET?

Fairford, which opened in 1944 and was used by allied troops for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, has this year been used by US forces for strikes on Iran.

It is one of the US Air Force’s only European airfields suitable for heavy bombers, and played a key role in both the first Gulf War in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Britain said in July its armed forces were ​ready to protect Fairford after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned it not to allow US bombers to ‌fly from the base. The Guards said any base used to launch attacks would be a legitimate target.

Over the last six weeks there has been increased surveillance in the area after a specific threat from the Iranians, according to a local councillor.

WHAT HAVE PEOPLE SAID SO FAR ABOUT THE INCIDENT?

The farmer, who has not been named, told British media she saw eight to 10 men running from the vans with their faces covered and that they got within about 100 metres of the perimeter fence of the airbase.

“I just can’t process how that base was on such high alert, and that the men were even there,” she said, adding that a blockade had focused only on the main entrance.

“I’m really glad they ran away.”

British defence minister Wes Streeting told BBC TV he was grateful to the witness but that she only had a “partial picture” of what had happened after she said she was “staggered” it had been left to a member of the public to report them despite the heightened threat.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday the group had been under investigation as part of a long-running investigation. “We had them under view for a long time, and we got them,” he said, adding that the suspects intended “big damage” to the base.

 Iran’s embassy in London said in a statement on Monday that it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations” about Tehran’s possible involvement in the incident.

(Reporting by Kate Holton, additional reporting by Sarah Young, editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Gareth Jones)