Counter-terrorism police are investigating whether an alleged bomb plot near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire was linked to Iran, after several men were arrested on explosives offences.
The airbase was declared a “major incident” following the arrests. The inquiry comes amid warnings that Tehran has increasingly relied on covert operations, including the use of criminal proxies, to target opponents and Western interests.
RAF Fairford is one of the few European airfields capable of handling America’s B-1 and B-52 heavy bombers. Following the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran on February 28, Britain allowed American forces to use the base to launch strikes against Iranian missile sites.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded in July by describing Britain as a “definite and legitimate target” if it supported the American military action. The IRGC specifically referred to US bombers operating from British bases.
It remains unclear whether Tehran was behind the alleged plot at Fairford. However, the base’s role and the warning issued by the IRGC are being examined as part of the investigation.
Iran-linked plots in Britain
Conventional missile attacks on Britain would be difficult because of the distance involved, but Iranian intelligence and the IRGC have developed alternative methods of targeting enemies, including explosives, assassination attempts and kidnapping plots.
Since 2022, MI5 and counter-terrorism police have disrupted more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in Britain. Those operations included alleged plans to kill or abduct opponents of the Iranian regime.
Iranian targets have included dissidents, journalists and Jewish communities and institutions. Earlier this year, three masked men set fire to four ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer service Hatzola in Golders Green, north London, causing about £1 million in damage. An Iran-linked group claimed responsibility, although no direct link to Tehran has been established.
In March 2024, Pouria Zeraati, a presenter for the London-based opposition broadcaster Iran International, was stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon. The attackers travelled to Heathrow and left Britain within hours.
Two Romanian men later extradited to Britain were jailed over the attack. The threats against Iran International became so serious that the station temporarily closed its London studios and broadcast from Washington.
Between 2022 and 2023, MI5 and the Metropolitan Police also revealed that they had disrupted at least 15 Iranian plots to kidnap or kill British nationals or UK residents regarded as enemies by Tehran.
Iranian state actors are understood to have increasingly recruited criminals to carry out operations on their behalf. MI5 has said the regime makes “extensive use of criminals as proxies”, ranging from international drug traffickers to low-level offenders.
Using intermediaries can make attacks more difficult to trace and allow Tehran to deny direct involvement. The alleged Fairford plot is now being assessed against that wider pattern of activity, while investigators continue to establish who was behind it and what was intended.
