U.K. charges 2 men, accuses them of working on Iran's behalf in incident at airbase

Two men were charged Tuesday with national security offences over a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run military airbase in England, police and prosecutors said.

RAF Fairford, in western England, has been used by American bombers to strike Iran

The Associated Press

· Posted: Oct 27, 2026 7:45 AM EDT | Last Updated: 19 minutes ago

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Two men were charged Tuesday with national security offences over a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run military airbase in England, police and prosecutors said.

British-Iranian dual national Mohmed Abdulkarim and British citizen Nouman Essghir, both aged 24 and from London, were charged under the National Security Act, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Abdulkarim is charged with assisting Iran's intelligence service and Essghir with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the U.K. Both were due to appear in court later Tuesday.

RAF Fairford, in western England, has been used by American bombers to strike Iran during this year's war.

Essghir was arrested outside the base on Sept. 27, when armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area. Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes as police and army bomb-disposal experts searched for explosives.

Police later said they had found a quantity of gasoline, an accelerant, in vans at the scene, but no explosives.

Essghir was initially released on bail before being re-arrested last week. Abdulkarim was arrested in the past week. Six other men have been arrested and released on bail as investigations continue.

Iran denies involvement

British authorities have linked Tehran to the incident, which led the U.S. to pull its bombers from RAF Fairford. U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the apparent plot was "almost certainly" directed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Iran has denied involvement, although it has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target .

WATCH | Several were arrested hours after incident came to light:

U.K. police arrest 5 near airbase on suspicion of terrorist plot

September 27|

Duration

3:00

Police have arrested five men near the RAF Fairford airbase not far from the village of Whelford, England. Authorities suspect the men of preparing a terrorist plot possibly linked to the war in Iran, as the airbase is used by the U.S. to launch strikes.

Ken McCallum, who leads the U.K.'s domestic security service, said Tehran is seeking to intensify its attacks in Britain beyond the traditional targets of Iranians opposed to the country's Islamic authorities. He said more than 50 people have been arrested over Iran-linked plots in the past year.

"We have seen a range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state, and as the director general of MI5 said just the other week, we are working together to intervene, identify and respond to that threat," said Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the head of National Counter Terrorism Policing in the U.K.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in public statements said that they suspected Iranian involvement at some level. The U.S. removed several B-1 bombers from Fairford several days after the incident.