British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Wednesday that the United Kingdom had “strong indications” that Iran played a role in the incident that led to the arrest of five men near a US-run military air base in England late at night.
Burnham said British and American officials were conducting a “complex and serious” investigation into how and why five men and three pickup trucks were found near the perimeter of RAF Fairford, the base that American bombers used to strike Iran during this year’s war.
Five British men in their 20s were arrested on Sunday on suspicion of explosives offenses and planning a terrorist act, before being released on bail the next day. Police say they found a quantity of benzene – gasoline – in the two trucks, but no explosives were found.
Burnham did not provide details about what the suspects were planning or why the UK believed Iran was involved. He said he “will update people further in due course.”
“There are strong indications that Iran played a role in what happened over the weekend at the RAF Fairford base, but of course the police investigation remains ongoing, complex and serious,” Burnham told the BBC in one of a series of interviews with British television stations. “And of course, we are working closely with our colleagues in the USA.”
Iran denied involvement in the incident. It has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.
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US bombers have used the base 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of London during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including this year’s war with Iran.
Senior US officials criticized the decision to release the suspects on bail, with President Donald Trump saying: “I would not have done that,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying many people were “disturbed” by the move.
Burnham said that the authorities were placing the investigation under “the strongest and closest control,” and that British officials “have spoken with their counterparts in the United States all week to explain what is happening here, and how things are done.”
He told the BBC: “I have complete confidence in the way the British security services are handling this matter.”
Lawrence Taylor, head of Britain’s counter-terrorism police, said on Tuesday that the suspects were still under investigation and that the decision to grant bail was based on “experience and strategy”.
He said the line of investigation is whether the suspected crimes were committed by “agents or individuals, whether knowingly or unknowingly, acting for the benefit of a foreign state.”
The arrests came at a time of rising tension over the threat posed by enemy states, with British security services saying Russia and Iran have used proxies to commit crimes on UK soil. British officials said the number of national security cases involving activities by hostile states, including Iran, increased by 50 percent in the six months to December 2025.
British officials also say that agents linked to Iran were behind a series of arson attacks and other attacks in the United Kingdom and other countries, many of which targeted the Jewish community and were intended to sow fear. They have previously warned that Tehran may expand its targets in the UK if conflicts in the Middle East continue.
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