British police arrest UK-Iranian national over airbase incident

Counter Terrorism police also questioned a UK national, days after five others were arrested and released on bail.

Police officers guard an area near RAF Fairford airbase, after police declared a major incident at the base on Sunday [File: Toby Shepheard/Reuters]

A British-Iranian man has been arrested in connection with an alleged security incident at an airbase in southwest England over the weekend.

Counter Terrorism police in the UK said on Thursday that a “27-year-old man, a dual UK/Iranian national, was arrested” in central London.

He was detained “on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts” as part of an investigation into the events on Sunday near the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford.

A second man, 26 – a UK national – was also “questioned under caution”, the police statement added.

The RAF base 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of London has been used by US bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which began in February.

On Sunday, five men, all in their 20s and from London, were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences and “terrorism” over the incident at RAF Fairford. They have since been released on bail.

“The investigation into circumstances surrounding events in Gloucestershire is hugely complex, and our specialist teams are interrogating multiple lines of enquiry,” Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing for the Metropolitan Police, said in a statement.

“As we’ve made clear, we’re looking at all possible angles – including possible foreign state involvement.”

Police on Tuesday said they had found no explosives in the vehicles that were parked near the base on Sunday, but had retrieved a “quantity of petrol”.

Earlier, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were “ strong indications ” that Iran played a role in an alleged security incident.

Iran, however, strongly denied any involvement in the incident and the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, hit back at Burnham’s allegations, saying British authorities were “barking up the wrong tree”.

Iran’s embassy in London on Monday said the attempts to link Iran to the individuals arrested near the airbase were “fabricated speculations” that fuel “Iranophobia propaganda”.

Since March, the US has used the airbase to launch attacks on Iran, and the UK has authorised US bombers based there to strike Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a powerful military force that operates alongside the country’s regular armed forces, warned in July that bases used to launch attacks on Iran could be treated as legitimate targets.

反恐警察还讯问了一名英国公民，此前几天，另有五人被捕后获得保释。

周日，警方宣布费尔福德皇家空军基地发生重大事件后，警方在基地附近区域进行警戒。[图片：Toby Shepheard/路透社]

一名英伊双重国籍男子因涉嫌周末在英格兰西南部一处空军基地发生的安全事件而被捕。

英国反恐警察周四表示，一名“27岁、拥有英国/伊朗双重国籍的男子在伦敦市中心被捕”。

他因“涉嫌准备实施恐怖主义行为”而被拘留，这是对周日在皇家空军费尔福德基地附近发生的事件进行调查的一部分。

警方声明还补充说，第二名男子，26岁，英国公民，也“被警方进行了询问”。

位于伦敦以西 160 公里（100 英里）的英国皇家空军基地，在数十年的中东冲突中，包括今年 2 月开始的美国和以色列对伊朗的战争，一直被美国轰炸机使用。

周日，五名男子因涉嫌在费尔福德皇家空军基地发生的爆炸事件而被逮捕，他们均二十多岁，来自伦敦。目前他们已被保释。

“对格洛斯特郡事件相关情况的调查非常复杂，我们的专家团队正在对多条线索进行调查，”伦敦警察厅反恐警务高级国家协调员维姬·埃文斯在一份声明中表示。

“正如我们已经明确表示的那样，我们正在调查所有可能的角度——包括外国政府可能的介入。”

警方周二表示，他们在周日停放在基地附近的车辆中没有发现爆炸物，但查获了“一定数量的汽油”。

此前，英国首相安迪·伯纳姆表示，有“强烈迹象”表明伊朗在所谓的安全事件中扮演了某种角色。

然而，伊朗强烈否认参与了这起事件，该国外交部长阿巴斯·阿拉格奇反驳了伯纳姆的指控，称英国当局“找错了对象”。

伊朗驻伦敦大使馆周一表示，试图将伊朗与在空军基地附近被捕的人员联系起来的企图是“捏造的猜测”，助长了“仇伊宣传”。

自 3 月以来，美国一直利用该空军基地对伊朗发动袭击，英国也授权驻扎在那里的美国轰炸机袭击伊朗在霍尔木兹海峡针对船只的导弹发射场。

伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队（IRGC）是一支与该国正规军并肩作战的强大军事力量，该部队在7月份警告称，用于对伊朗发动袭击的基地可能被视为合法目标。