The US on Sunday confirmed that it has withdrawn all B-1 bombers from the British air base of RAF Fairford, with officials telling US media that the move was linked to “new threats.”
Police were called to the base in southwest England on Sept. 27 after a local farmer reported a group of men with several vans engaged in “suspicious” activity.
The scare prompted a counterterrorism probe and forced evacuations at 85 homes near the air base, which was used by the US to launch strikes on Iran.
Photo: AFP
Investigators did not find any explosives in the vans, but “a quantity of petrol was recovered,” counterterrorism police said.
A statement from a Pentagon official on Sunday said “we can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States.”
“Operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time,” it said.
An unidentified US official told CNN that the bombers were moved after “an unspecified new threat,” with the source calling the latest threat a “real world incident.”
It was unusual to move the bombers back to their home stations instead of deploying them to another base in the region, the official reportedly said.
Two US officials told the New York Times that the bombers were moved after commanders received new threats about an Iran-backed plot against the base.
One US official said the new information was part of the same threat warnings that surfaced three weeks ago, but the situation became urgent in the past 24 hours, the Times reported.
Speculation about the motives behind the incident ranged from terror threat to fuel thievery, as energy prices in the UK hit record highs this week.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there were “strong indications that Iran played a part” in the incident, a charge rejected by Tehran.
Six London-based Britons arrested in the incident, including a UK-Iranian dual national, all men in their mid-20s, were released on bail, drawing rebuke from Washington.
“I wouldn’t have done that,” US President Donald Trump told reporters, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio alleged a “foreign actor” was involved.
Iran’s embassy in London said it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns” speculation that Tehran was involved.
Adding to the mystery, British media reported that officers were alerted to the incident by one of the initial suspects, but police have not commented on the reports.
Security at the base had reportedly been heightened recently.
Britain gave Washington permission in March to use Fairford for “specific defensive operations into Iran,” and US bombers and other planes have since been seen taking off and landing at the base.
Fairford is the only air base on Britain’s mainland used for this purpose.
The incident came after a farmer living in the village of Whelford, near the air base, called the police after seeing three vans blocking a road and a group of masked men fleeing the scene.
Aerial footage of the vans showed they appeared to contain barrels, and at least one was marked with a fake logo and phone number, giving the false impression that it was owned by a legitimate diesel delivery company.
Japan has started its first nationwide survey of animal cafes amid concerns over animal welfare, hygiene and public health, a government official said, bringing greater scrutiny to the popular but lightly regulated sector. The desktop survey, which began this month, will examine the number of facilities, the types of animals they house and the conditions they are held in, and how visitors interact with the animals. Exotic animal cafes, where visitors can interact with species ranging from otters to owls and marmots, have become popular attractions for Japanese and foreign tourists. However, researchers say some facilities keep threatened species, raising
STRAIN ON TIES: The police arrested a 20-year-old man who matched the description of a suspect caught on CCTV leaving a hotel in Naha with the victim’s belongings A US Marine stationed on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman, police said yesterday. The suspect “killed the 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet on Saturday,” a local police spokesman said. US Ambassador George Glass posted on social media that he had spoken with Japan’s foreign ministry and Okinawa’s governor to offer “our sincere condolences and pledging full cooperation as the investigation continues.” Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the crime “exceptionally brutal and vicious” on X. The government has urged the US “to provide maximum cooperation
A US lawmaker has called on Starbucks to close its first stores in Xinjiang, China, calling it a “morally bankrupt decision” to do business in a region where Uighurs face repression. China denies widespread accusations about abuses of the Uighurs, a mainly Muslim people, saying its policies there were aimed at combating terrorism, separatism and religious extremism. Starbucks opened its first two stores this week in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, including one at the city centre’s grand bazaar and a second at its international airport. John Moolenaar, chairman of the Select Committee on China of the House of Representatives, called on Starbucks to “immediately
The winner of this year’s Fat Bear Week has been crowned after a nail-biting final — and it’s the son of a former champion. Backpack, a 20-year-old male beloved by rangers in Alaska for his quiet determination, edged out female fellow finalist Dancing Queen in the annual ursine eating competition at Katmai National Park. More than 2.3 million people voted in the week-long competition that sees bears unwittingly jostle in a series of head-to-head contests to decide which one of them has most impressively piled on the pounds ahead of hibernation. Viewers watch a livestream of the enormous animals as they scoop salmon
RSS