{"id":1887,"date":"2026-09-29T19:03:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2026-09-29T19:03:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:03:59","slug":"rubio-says-uk-airbase-incident-involved-a-foreign-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=1887","title":{"rendered":"Rubio says UK airbase incident involved a foreign state"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the \u201chands of a foreign actor\u201d were \u200binvolved in an incident in which five men were arrested on suspected explosives and terrorism offences near a British airbase used \u200cby US forces to strike Iran.<\/strong><\/p>\n

British police declared a major incident at the RAF Fairford base in western England following the arrests early on Sunday, and the government held a national emergency meeting.<\/p>\n

However, the police released the five on bail on Monday, but said the investigation was not over and they were examining whether individuals acting for \u200ba foreign state were involved.<\/p>\n

A source familiar with the situation told Reuters<\/em> that three large white vans the men appeared to \u200btravel in had not contained viable explosives.<\/p>\n

The source said Sunday\u2019s police response had not been intelligence-led – an indication that \u2060the five were not under direct surveillance – but security had been beefed up at the base, suggesting there was information it was being \u200btargeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened, what almost happened, what could have happened in the UK over the weekend is a very serious situation. It\u2019s one that \u200bclearly involves the hands of a foreign actor. I won\u2019t get into great detail about that yet,\u201d Rubio told the Fox News network\u2019s \u201cHannity\u201d program late on Monday.<\/p>\n

He provided no evidence and did not give specific details.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the incident \u201cmight be\u201d connected to Iran, with which \u200bthe United States is at war since late February, and that he would not have released the suspects on bail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have done that,\u201d \u200bhe said.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Iran denies involvement in RAF Fairford incident<\/h3>\n

The five arrested are all British nationals in their early 20s from London. They were detained in the early \u200chours on \u2060Sunday after police were alerted by a local farmer to the three white vans parked near RAF Fairford.<\/p>\n

Local residents have said security was significantly beefed up at the base in the days leading up to Sunday. The local farmer told reporters that one neighbour, driving past the base on Saturday night, had been ordered by US security personnel to stop and put their hands out of their car.<\/p>\n

The farmer, who asked not \u200bto be named, called the police \u200bafter she returned home around \u20600100 local time and found three large vans parked in the road, one with a fake telephone number on it, and a group of hooded and masked men running away.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, a large cordon remained \u200baround the base, and roadblocks were in place, although local media reports said residents from nearby homes \u200bwhich had been \u2060evacuated were returning.<\/p>\n

Western governments have warned in recent years of the threat of hostile actors from Iran, Russia and elsewhere organising destabilising activity or hiring proxies to carry out plots.<\/p>\n

Britain raised its national terrorism threat level to its second highest in April after a series of antisemitic incidents in north London, meaning \u2060an attack \u200bis considered highly likely.<\/p>\n

It has also imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to \u200bIran, accusing them of involvement in hostile activity including plotting and providing financial services to groups seeking to destabilise Britain and other countries.<\/p>\n

Iran has denied involvement in attacks or plots in \u200bBritain and elsewhere, and on Monday denied any involvement in the incident at Fairford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the \u201chands of a foreign actor\u201d were \u200binvolved in an incident in which five men were arrested on suspected explosives and terrorism offences near a British airbase used \u200cby US forces to strike Iran. British police declared a major incident at the RAF Fairford base in western England following the arrests early on Sunday, and the government held a national emergency meeting. However, the police released the five on bail on Monday, but said the investigation was not over and they were examining…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}