--- title: "Police Rearrest Two Fairford Suspects, Now on Suspicion of Helping Iranian Intelligence" description: "The suspected offence has moved from explosives to the National Security Act, and seven arrests later nobody has been charged" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-10-20T20:17:53Z modified: 2026-10-21T02:22:19Z url: https://rews.cc/a/police-rearrest-two-fairford-suspects-now-on-suspicion-of-he-11ed04 language: en tags: ["iran", "security", "uk", "war", "terrorism", "europe", "mideast"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Police Rearrest Two Fairford Suspects, Now on Suspicion of Helping Iranian Intelligence *The suspected offence has moved from explosives to the National Security Act, and seven arrests later nobody has been charged* By Nate Ledger · October 20, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/police-rearrest-two-fairford-suspects-now-on-suspicion-of-he-11ed04 ## In brief - UK counterterrorism police rearrested two men, aged 24 and 25, on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service - Both had been bailed after arrests linked to a September 27 incident near the US-run RAF Fairford airbase - Police found petrol but no explosives in three vans near the base, which has been used for strikes on Iran - Police chief Laurence Taylor said Iranian state involvement is “highly likely”; Iran’s embassy denies any link - Seven men have been arrested and none charged; the US has since withdrawn all its bombers from Fairford On Tuesday, Counter Terrorism Policing in the UK rearrested two men it had already arrested once. They are a 24-year-old British national and a 25-year-old dual British-Iranian national, and this time they were held under the National Security Act, on suspicion of assisting Iran’s intelligence service, [as Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/20/uk-police-re-arrest-two-men-on-suspicion-of-assisting-iranian-intelligence). Both had been out on bail while inquiries continued. One was first detained on September 27, the night of the suspected plot at RAF Fairford. The other was first detained on October 1. Here is the background, briefly. RAF Fairford is a US-run airbase in Gloucestershire, in western England, and it has been used to launch strikes on Iran during this year’s war. At around 00:45 on September 27, police got a call about suspicious activity in the village of Whelford, and just after 01:30 a member of the public called again to report three vehicles and a group of men behaving suspiciously, [according to CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/raf-fairford-security-incident-arrests-suspected-spying-iran/). Police declared a major incident. Residents were evacuated, and armed officers and army bomb-disposal teams moved into the countryside. Five men were arrested “on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act” and for explosives offences, and all five were bailed the next day. In the three vans, police later found petrol, used as an accelerant. They found no explosives. ![A red fuel can stands in a spotlight beside a dark rural road where three white vans drive alongside a barbed-wire fence.](https://rews.cc/img/49fb0d204c71a77fbac0192578f884be2bfcfcc3.webp) I think the interesting part of Tuesday’s news is the change of label. The first set of arrests described an act: preparing terrorism, handling explosives. The new suspicion describes a relationship. Section 3 of the National Security Act covers assisting a foreign intelligence service, and what it asks about is who you were working for, more than what you had in the van. I don’t know what the police are thinking and they aren’t saying. But when your original theory involved explosives and you found petrol, a theory built on who the men were allegedly helping is a reasonable place to go next. Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, gave the count. “So far seven men have been arrested in connection with our investigation,” he said, and “earlier today two of those men were re-arrested for offences relating to Section 3 of the National Security Act — assisting a foreign intelligence service,” [as CNN reported](https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/20/uk/two-men-arrested-iran-uk-base-fairford-intl). He called the investigation “hugely complex” with “many lines of enquiry” and said “this is very much a live investigation.” Then he went a step further than police usually do: > We consider it highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement. ![A magnifying glass enlarges two men in a black-and-white countryside collage, with red thread connecting them to an Iran-shaped cutout on a blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/577019d3d2dd973f86b4ae28e05d10613f5885b8.webp) Investigators, he said, are now looking at “what that level of involvement was and the ambition behind it.” Translated: the police are fairly confident about the who and much less confident about the what. That is an odd position for a case to be in, but it is honest. The government got to that conclusion before the police did. Prime Minister Andy Burnham first said there were “strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened,” and later that the plot was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, [naming the Guard outright](https://rews.cc/a/burnham-names-iran-s-revolutionary-guard-as-the-hand-behind--2af20c). The Iranian Embassy in London says Iran “categorically rejects and strongly condemns” attempts to link it to the incident. Iranian officials have also said, more than once, that any base used to attack Iran is a legitimate target. You can hold both positions at once, roughly “we didn’t do it, and we would have been entitled to”, and Tehran does. ## The bombers Whatever the ambition was, the base looks very different now. Earlier this year Fairford hosted a peak of 21 to 23 strategic bombers. Six B-52 Stratofortresses went back to the US late last month. About a dozen B-1B Lancers were still there on October 4, and then [those left too](https://rews.cc/a/twelve-b-1bs-leave-raf-fairford-ending-the-us-s-only-europea-cf3545). So within a few weeks of the vans turning up, Fairford went from more than 20 American heavy bombers to none. ![Three airplane-shaped cutouts reveal pale green paper beneath a weathered gray tiled surface, with torn edges and a reddish corner.](https://rews.cc/img/c10844a292ecc954345450f4e57584565992a394.webp) Fairford isn’t an isolated case, either. Ken McCallum, head of MI5, the UK’s domestic intelligence service, has warned that Iran and Russia are stepping up their targeting of UK military bases and said the Fairford incident was not unique. More than 50 people have been arrested over Iran-linked plots in the past year, he said. That is about one a week, which tells you either how busy Tehran has been or how quickly British police now reach for the Iran file. It may well be both. The rest of the case is still mostly bail. The five other men first arrested near the base, all in their 20s, remain on bail. A seventh man, a 22-year-old British national, was arrested in Westminster on October 6 and bailed as well. Nobody has been charged and police have named none of the seven. ITV News reported that the operation wasn’t based on prior intelligence, meaning investigators hadn’t known about a possible plot in advance. Britain’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence services are now working on the case at full stretch. What actually started it was someone in Whelford who noticed some vans at half past one in the morning and phoned the police.