Fairford, England – The investigation into an alleged plot to attack an air base in England used by American long-range bombers continues, according to British Defense Minister Wes Streeting, and five unidentified men remain in custody. The five were arrested early Sunday near the Fairford base in western England, from where American B-1 bombers have been flying missions against Iran. UK authorities have not revealed where the men are being held, or what was found in the three white vans they appear to have used. Aerial footage on Sunday showed a bomb disposal robot wandering among vans in the woods near the base. The rear doors of two of the vans were open and large black objects could be seen scattered on the ground nearby. Nearby CNN crews later heard what sounded like two controlled detonations from the direction of the town where the vans were found. In a series of interviews on Monday, Streeting was asked whether the incident may have been fueled by a hostile foreign state. He responded that he did not “want to speculate at this stage of the investigation.” In July, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps specifically noted the use of Fairford by US bombers and warned the UK that “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces.” It is unclear whether the five men were under surveillance prior to their arrival in the Fairford area in the early hours of Sunday. US President Donald Trump called the arrests “fantastic” and said the US and UK had the men under investigation for a “long time”. “Working with Britain was an incredible job,” Trump told reporters in Chicago. “They wanted to cause great damage to our fort and working with the British worked very well.” “We had them under control for a long time and we got them,” he said. UK authorities have not commented on the US president’s claim. Speaking at the ruling Labor Party’s annual conference, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the events in Fairford were “a reminder of the threats facing our country”. “Hooded and masked” photographs of the men, shirtless and with their hands tied behind their backs, appeared in UK media on Sunday. They were initially detained under laws on the possession of explosives and were later also arrested “on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act,” according to a statement from the anti-terrorist police. A local resident said she encountered the men when she was returning home on Saturday night. “I found both the driveway and the road blocked by three white vans,” he told BBC radio on Monday. “As I drove a short distance from the vans, I saw a large group of hooded and masked men,” said the resident, who prefers to remain anonymous. “When they saw me, they ran ahead of me, some towards the field and others towards the neighboring town.” “My impression was that they were fit and young, all wearing similar dark clothes.” The resident said she had immediately called the Ministry of Defense police, responsible for security at the base, but they did not respond. “At 1:36 am, I called (the emergency number) 999 to report what I had seen. Within 10 minutes, the town was full of armed police.” “I think it was just luck that I arrived in town at the same time as the vans,” added the resident, a farmer. Streeting thanked the resident but added that “she only has a partial photograph.” The work of the police and security services “often goes unrecognized and unreported, for good reason,” he said. Several UK media outlets – including the BBC, The Guardian and The Telegraph – reported, citing sources, that the operation was not led by intelligence services, suggesting that surveillance by local residents may have played a key role in alerting authorities. Police first received a call at 12:45 a.m. local time on Sunday “related to three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be traveling toward the air base,” according to a statement from counterterrorism police. The resident’s call – according to herself – came almost an hour later. A cordon remains in place around the area where the men were detained, and several people have been evacuated from their homes. Local people told CNN that security around the base had been tightened in recent days, with roadblocks at the entrance. But roads and lanes in the immediate area were still open. The woman who called the police and another local resident said that during previous conflicts, such as against Iraq in 2003, there was a lot of security around the base. But security since the conflict with Iran began has been less evident, they said. In March, the UK government gave the US Air Force permission to use Fairford to carry out strikes against Iranian missile sites used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Days after the IRGC issued its threat against Fairford in July, Iranian media published a video of a group describing themselves as Iranian patriots at the base’s perimeter fence. “This is RAF Fairford on British soil, the place where American military planes take off from these same runways to attack our people and our homeland,” says one man, with an Iranian flag hanging from the fence. “We came to stand just a few meters from the nest of hostile aircraft and raise the proud flag of Iran,” the unidentified man says in the video. A spokesperson for the US Air Force in Fairford, where the 501st Combat Support Wing is based, told CNN on Sunday: “For operational security reasons, we will not discuss specific force protection measures.” The unit “remains alert and will take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of our U.S. service members, civilians, contractors and their families,” the spokesperson said. CNN’s James Frater contributed to this report.
