LONDON — One of the five suspects in the alleged plot targeting a British airbase used by the US military in the early hours of Sunday called the police shortly before they were arrested, multiple British media outlets have reported.
The five men were arrested early Sunday on suspicion of explosive offenses and later terrorism charges near a Royal Air Force base at Fairford in western England, from where US B-1 bombers have been flying missions against Iran.
The incident triggered a major security response in the area and sparked alarm on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as accusations of foreign involvement.
The five men were quickly released on bail and police have now confirmed no explosives were found in three vans at the scene, but the investigation remains ongoing.
The latest revelation that one of the men called the police, which was first reported by The Times of London, followed by the Guardian and the BBC, deepens the mystery.
The Times and BBC both reported that the call from the suspect to 999, the emergency number used in Britain, came almost an hour before a female farmer alerted authorities after seeing a group of masked men and three white vans.
The Times reported police were already on the scene when that later call from the local resident came in. The paper added police were investigating whether the suspect got cold feet or whether making such a call was part of the plan.
In their latest public statements, British police have indicated there may have been more than one trigger that sparked them into action.
“A police response was activated in the early hours of Sunday morning due to a range of information received, including a call from a member of the public about several vehicles acting suspiciously close to RAF Fairford,” Laurence Taylor, a senior counter-terrorism police officer, told reporters.
Taylor said “no improvised explosive devices were found” in vehicles used by the men, but that “a quantity of petrol was recovered.”
Police are planning to close down their investigative operations at Fairford by Wednesday, he added.
Police cordons near the base are expected to be completely lifted on Wednesday, while residents from the 85 homes evacuated on Sunday have been allowed to return to their properties.
The suspects, who have been identified only as British nationals aged between 23 and 25 from the London area, were released on bail on Monday. Taylor defended the move as an “investigative decision” following criticism from US President Donald Trump, who said, “I wouldn’t have done that.”
Taylor previously said their bail was “subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others” as they remained under investigation.
“The safety of the public is at the forefront of our investigative decision-making, and this was certainly the case yesterday,” he said on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday the suspected terror plot “clearly involved the hands of a foreign actor,” after Trump said the suspects “might be” connected to Iran.
Iran has strongly denied any involvement. The UK has yet to publicly confirm any foreign link, though Taylor earlier said police were looking into it.
In an update on Tuesday, Taylor said the incident had been worrying for many people, with this “heightened by the international commentary that we are seeing” in an apparent reference to comments from the US administration.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham chaired a Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon and urged people “not to speculate while the authorities establish the full facts”.
The RAF base has been used as a forward operating location by the US Air Force for decades.
In recent months, US bombers have taken off from the base for the Middle East, after the UK approved a US request to use it for defensive strikes on Iran.
Source: Saudi Gazette