The U.S. Air Force has pulled all of its bombers out of a key base in England, days after six people were arrested in an alleged plot to attack it. All of the B-1 bombers deployed to RAF Fairford have now returned to their home bases in the U.S., according to Pentagon officials.
The withdrawal includes at least 12 bombers, several of which had only recently arrived in the U.K. as part of a regular rotation.
Officials told NBC News the sudden departure wasn’t triggered by a new threat, but was connected to existing threat reporting. They didn’t elaborate.
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Suspected plot at Fairford
The move follows the arrests of six people in connection with a suspected plot to attack Fairford — a base the U.S. has used to launch strikes against Iran.
All six suspects have since been released on bail.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says there are “strong indications” Iran played a role.
“We have been waiting to confirm what we could say, but we can now confirm our belief that Iran played a part,” Burnham said in an interview with Sky News last week.
Iran denies any involvement. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Burnham’s accusations in a post on X saying, “You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
The Iranian Embassy in London also said Tehran “categorically rejects” attempts to link Iran to the incident.
The dispute comes as President Donald Trump is again threatening military action against Iran.
Trump warns Iran again
Over the weekend, Trump warned Iran that the U.S. has a “decision to make.”
“Iran’s been decimated,” he told reporters Saturday. “So the only question is, it’ll either be the easy way or the hard way. We’ll have it the easy or the hard way.”
Trump also claimed Iran is backing away from its nuclear ambitions.
“By the way, Iran, as you know, is virtually giving up any plans of a nuclear weapons,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments follow his threats last week to resume bombing Iran before the midterm elections.