Andy Burnham says RAF Fairford terror plot almost certainly directed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told lawmakers on October 12 that a suspected terror plot at RAF Fairford was "highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran — almost certainly directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard." Seven men, all in their twenties, had been arrested on terror and explosives charges on September 27 after police, acting on local tips about suspicious activity, stopped three vans heading toward the Gloucestershire base.

What investigators found in the vans was gasoline — no explosives. All seven have since been released from custody, and none has been formally charged. The Pentagon has removed its heavy bombers from the base.

The target explains the attention. RAF Fairford is shared with the United States, and the airbase is used by American forces to launch strikes against Iran. Burnham said investigators were in close contact with Washington about protective security at shared military bases in the UK, and promised a crackdown: "We will not tolerate these threats on our soil. We will crack down on Iran's use of criminal networks using our full range of powers to target them and their funding streams."

The attribution came with diplomatic reinforcement. The US and the UK joined 27 other countries in a joint statement recognizing "the United Kingdom's attribution of Iran's involvement in the incident at RAF Fairford on 27 September," describing the Revolutionary Guard's continued willingness to project hostile activity beyond its borders through covert networks and proxy actors, and condemning in the strongest terms Iran's use of violent attacks, including lethal plotting, arson, sabotage and cyber-attacks.

The Fairford case followed a series of attacks across Europe targeting Jewish communities, Iranian journalists and US interests — a homemade explosive at a synagogue in Liège, attacks on synagogues in the Netherlands, a foiled bomb plot against a Bank of America branch in Paris — which the pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed to have instigated, according to state officials. On October 7, two Latvian men were arrested on espionage charges after allegedly breaking into RAF Molesworth, a base near London used by US and NATO intelligence teams. Burnham did not say whether the two airbase incidents were linked.

The seven suspects are no longer in custody. The bombers are no longer at Fairford.