Trump confirms threats behind RAF Fairford bomber withdrawal after six arrested
Donald Trump has confirmed "some threats" prompted the US to remove its bombers from RAF Fairford. Six people have been arrested in connection with an alleged bomb plot near the Gloucestershire base.
Trump confirms threats drove US bomber withdrawal from RAF Fairford
US President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that "some threats" to RAF Fairford prompted Washington to withdraw its fleet of bombers from the Gloucestershire airbase, bbc.com reports.
The Pentagon announced on Sunday that it had removed approximately a dozen B-1 bombers from the base, redeploying them to their home stations in America. Speaking to reporters before departing for Nebraska, Trump said the move was deliberate.
"They didn't fly out by accident," Trump said. "There were some threats. And rather than tempting the enemy, we'll capture the enemy and beat the enemy. But why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit. Not very far."
He added that Washington "actually knows the people that made the threat", though he declined to identify them.
Trump's remarks appear to confirm reporting by US media that a fresh threat had prompted the removal of the aircraft. The withdrawal follows a major incident on 27 September, when police were alerted to three "suspicious vehicles" near the base.
Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offences and subsequently released on bail. A sixth man, a UK-Iranian national, was also arrested and later released on bail. Counter-terror police are investigating the incident.
Following the release of the first five men, Trump had criticised the decision, and US officials suggested Iran could have been involved. Whitehall sources have not disputed that the decision to remove the bombers was linked to the incident at the base.
Earlier on Monday, a No 10 spokesperson insisted RAF Fairford remained safe, pointing to Trump's comments from the previous week in which he praised "our police, defence and security services" in relation to the base.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking earlier the same day, declined to directly connect last week's incident to the bomber withdrawal. "It's not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in and old planes going out," Rubio said. He added that the US retains full confidence in the security of all its overseas bases and that British authorities had been cooperative since the incident.
US Vice President JD Vance later said the bombers were moved as an "abundance of caution", and suggested Washington believes Iran is continuing to "engage in acts of terrorism against the US and against a lot of other people", as it has done, in his words, for 49 years.
Days after the initial incident, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were "strong indications" that Iran had played a part, without providing further detail. Rubio separately told Fox News the incident "clearly involve[d] the hands of a foreign actor", also without elaborating. Tehran has strongly denied any involvement.
In July, Iran stated that "any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces."
RAF Fairford, situated near the Cotswolds village of Whelford in Gloucestershire, has served as a forward operating location for the United States Air Force for decades. In recent months, the US has flown B-1 and B-52 bombers from the base for operations in the Middle East, following UK approval of a US request to use the site for defensive strikes on Iran.
Source: The Sun