Two men rearrested in Britain over alleged Iran-linked plot against US-run air base

LONDON — British police said Tuesday that two men had been rearrested on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service in connection with an alleged plot against a U.S.-run air base in England last month.

According to Counter Terrorism Policing, the suspects are a 24-year-old British national and a 25-year-old dual British-Iranian national. Both were arrested under the National Security Act.

The men had previously been arrested and released on bail pending further investigation.

Police are investigating a suspected terror plot dating to Sept. 27 that targeted the U.S.-run RAF Fairford in western England, a base used for bombing missions against Iran during this year’s war.

Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes near the base as armed police officers and Army bomb-disposal experts flooded the rural area. Police later said they had found an accelerant, described as gasoline, in three vans at the site, but no explosives.

British authorities have linked Tehran to the incident, which prompted the United States to withdraw its bombers from RAF Fairford.

Five other men arrested earlier remain on bail. No one has yet been charged.

Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing in the U.K., said detectives are looking at “many lines of enquiry involved in this hugely complex investigation.”

“This is very much a live investigation, and our evidence gathering continues, but at this time our position remains the same; we consider it highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement,” he said in a statement.

“Our investigators are continuing to examine what that level of involvement was and the ambition behind it,” he added.

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