UK Police Find Fuel But No Explosives at Fairford Scene

UK counter-terror police investigating an incident at an airbase used by the US to launch strikes in Iran said they found fuel but no explosives at the scene.

(Bloomberg) -- UK counter-terror police investigating an incident at an airbase used by the US to launch strikes in Iran said they found fuel but no explosives at the scene.

“No improvised explosive devices were found. However, a quantity of petrol was recovered,” Laurence Taylor, head of the UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing said in an emailed statement.

He said the investigation continues into five men who were arrested and later bailed. Taylor defended the decision to release the men, which was criticized by President Donald Trump on Monday.

Investigators still consider a plot potentially involving proxies for Iran as the most likely explanation for the incident, but are keeping an open mind, and other possibilities remain on the table, according to people familiar with the probe. They said the men were not fuel thieves, dispelling online speculation that the police operation to detain them could have been a misunderstanding.

Referring to the decision to bail the men, Taylor said: “I understand why this development will have come as a surprise to many, but I’d like to reiterate that it was an investigative decision, and one which is grounded in experience and careful consideration of policing powers.” 

The statement didn’t offer any more detail to expand on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s suggestion on Monday that a “foreign actor” was involved in the incident.

RAF Fairford serves as the preferred forward operating base for bomber aircraft in Europe for the US Air Force Global Strike Command. Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July approved the use of the base by the US for “defensive strikes” against Iran, continuing the policy of his predecessor, Keir Starmer.

The Iranian Embassy in London said it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns” what it dismissed as “unfounded and malicious” attempts to link the case to Iran. Such speculation would “serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK,” the embassy said in a statement posted on the social media platform X.

Trump on Sunday praised the UK for quick action, suggesting that the individuals involved were being monitored. “We had them under view for a long time,” he said. However on Monday he said he wouldn’t have released the men on bail. “I’m surprised that they released them. I wouldn’t have done that,” he said.

(Updates with thinking of investigators in fourth paragraph.)