UK arrests British-Iranian suspect over RAF ‘plot’: What we know

Police investigate ‘possible foreign state involvement’ as sixth man arrested over RAF Fairford incident.

Police officers guard an area near RAF Fairford, an airbase in Fairford, Gloucestershire, England, on September 29, 2026 [Toby Shepheard/Reuters]

United Kingdom police have arrested a 25-year-old British-Iranian man in relation to a security incident at a Royal Air Force (RAF) station near Fairford, England, this week

The man, described by police as a “dual UK/Iranian national” and detained on suspicion of preparing “terrorist” acts, is the sixth person to be arrested in what British authorities said was potentially an Iran-backed plot. The five other people arrested earlier were released on bail on Monday.

list 1 of 3 Bail for RAF base suspects suggests no evidence of ‘terror’, say analysts

list 2 of 3 ‘Strong indications’ Iran linked to suspected UK airbase plot

list 3 of 3 US to send third aircraft carrier towards Iran: US official to Al Jazeera

The investigation began when British authorities were alerted early on Sunday about unusual activity near the airbase, including oddly parked vans and a group of masked men. After searching the vans, authorities found no weapons or explosives but did recover a “quantity of petrol”.

The RAF station has been used by the United States for military operations, including by bombers during the US-Israel war on Iran.

Here’s what we know about the latest development in the case:

British counterterrorism police announced the arrest of a 25-year-old British-Iranian dual national in Westminster, London, on Thursday. Iran, however, does not recognise dual citizenship, and treats Iranians with a second passport solely as Iranian.

The man was detained on “suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006”, the same offence cited in the arrests of the five other suspects. In line with standard police practice, none of the suspects has been named ahead of any charges being made.

Police said they also conducted searches of two properties in the London area. They appealed to the public for any information that could assist the investigation.

What do we know about the suspect in custody?

The Times newspaper reported that the British-Iranian suspect is being investigated as a possible “recruiter” in the still-opaque plot or as someone otherwise believed to have played a significant role.

The media reported that the man was placed under surveillance after the arrest of the first five men. He has not been named.

What evidence is there that this was an Iran-linked plot?

The UK has pointed to an Iranian connection but has so far kept the reason for that assessment under wraps.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there are “strong indications” of Iran’s involvement in the incident and an “ongoing, complex and serious police investigation” is continuing.

He did not give information on what the suspects may have been planning or what intelligence has led the UK to suspect the involvement of Iran, saying only that he would “update people more in due course”.

In the US, President Donald Trump said the case “might be” Iran-linked and the US had been keeping tabs on the suspects “for a long time”. Trump criticised the UK’s decision to release the first five suspects on bail.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government had forewarned the UK about a potential “Iranian-sponsored attack” but did not specify if that was related to the same RAF base incident.

Iranian officials have firmly denied any connection to the incident. Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanch called the claims “false and ridiculous”.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned British Ambassador Hugo Shorter on Thursday to protest against the allegations.

What happened at RAF Fairford?

Authorities received two early-morning calls on Sunday alerting them to suspicious activity near the Fairford airbase, including three vans parked strangely and a group of hooded, masked men.

Unusually, the first call to the UK’s emergency line was made by one of the suspects who would later be arrested.

Police responded and arrested five British men in their early 20s in the nearby Whelford area, saying they were suspected of explosives offences. Counterterrorism police later took over the investigation and said the men were suspected of preparing “a terrorist act”.

The suspects were released on bail on Monday but remained subject to “stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others”, according to the UK’s head of counterterrorism policing, Laurence Taylor.

After searching the vans located near the airbase, police said they found no explosives but did retrieve a “quantity of petrol”.

Why were the men arrested at the scene given bail if this is a major incident?

That’s one of the big unanswered questions.

Under British “counterterrorism” law, police may hold suspects for up to two weeks before charging them. However, if authorities find little evidence to support their initial suspicion of “terrorism”, they have far less time – usually 24 to 36 hours, Chris Phillips, a former head of the UK’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office, told Al Jazeera.

Other security experts told Al Jazeera that police likely released the first five suspects because they did not deem them to be an imminent security risk or found that their potential involvement in any plot was unwitting.

“In cases involving terrorism, suspects can still be released on bail when the authorities feel relatively confident that these individuals do not pose an imminent danger of either carrying out or organising a terrorist attack,” Andrew Silke, professor of criminology at Royal Holloway, University of London, told Al Jazeera.

“Individuals may have been involved unknowingly or in a peripheral manner to potential terrorist activity. This seems possible in the current case,” he added.

Afzal Ashraf, a visiting fellow in international relations and security at Loughborough University and a former senior RAF officer, agreed that police likely have assessed that the five released suspects do not pose “any immediate danger”.

“We can reasonably assume that police judged that these individuals did not present any immediate danger nor did they have any credible means or intention of creating further danger to the public or to government installations,” Ashraf told Al Jazeera.

However, he said their release on bail should not necessarily be taken to mean the incident in question “was minor or that the Iranian-involvement hypothesis has been rejected”.

British authorities said they are continuing to investigate all aspects of the case, including the possibility of it being a foreign-backed “plot”.

Silke said authorities will likely be thoroughly analysing all suspects’ communications and interactions, looking for information on contacts who may have organised their involvement and for any payment the suspects may have received.

“The authorities can investigate all of these links to establish if they lead back to foreign government sources or agencies,” he said.

Silke added that authorities will also look into any links between the RAF airbase incident and previous plots carried out on British soil.

Phillips said he believes the suspects could have been recruited online by foreign actors to carry out some type of malicious activity, such as “setting fire to something”.

He said both Russia and Iran have allegedly paid “stooges” to carry out such acts in recent years. “At first glance now, it seems that that may be the case, but time will tell,” Phillips added.

Iran and Russia have also previously been accused of orchestrating plots in the UK. Those plots have involved “surveillance, sabotage, arson or physical violence”, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said last year.

警方调查“可能存在的外国势力介入”，第六名男子因皇家空军费尔福德事件被捕。

2026年9月29日，警察在英格兰格洛斯特郡费尔福德的皇家空军费尔福德基地附近警戒。[托比·谢泼德/路透社]

英国警方本周逮捕了一名25岁的英伊双重国籍男子，该男子涉嫌与英格兰费尔福德附近皇家空军基地发生的一起安全事件有关。

警方称这名男子拥有英国和伊朗双重国籍，他因涉嫌策划“恐怖主义”活动而被拘留。他是英国当局所称的一起可能由伊朗支持的阴谋中被捕的第六人。此前被捕的其他五人已于周一获准保释。

分析人士称，英国皇家空军基地嫌疑人获准保释表明没有证据表明存在“恐怖主义”行为（名单1/3）。

清单2/3 “强烈迹象”表明伊朗与疑似英国空军基地阴谋有关

美国官员向半岛电视台透露，美国将向伊朗派遣第三艘航空母舰。

调查始于周日清晨，当时英国当局接到报警，称空军基地附近出现异常活动，包括停放位置怪异的货车和一群蒙面男子。搜查货车后，当局没有发现武器或爆炸物，但查获了“少量汽油”。

该英国皇家空军基地曾被美国用于军事行动，包括在美以对伊朗战争期间被轰炸机使用。

以下是我们目前了解到的案件最新进展：

英国反恐警察周四宣布在伦敦威斯敏斯特逮捕了一名25岁的英伊双重国籍公民。然而，伊朗不承认双重国籍，并将持有第二本护照的伊朗人视为伊朗公民。

该男子因涉嫌“根据2006年《反恐法》第5条准备实施恐怖主义行为”而被拘留，其他五名嫌疑人被捕时所依据的罪名相同。按照警方惯例，在提出任何指控之前，所有嫌疑人的姓名均未公布。

警方表示，他们还搜查了伦敦地区的两处房产。他们呼吁公众提供任何可能有助于调查的信息。

我们对被拘留的嫌疑人了解多少？

《泰晤士报》报道称，这名英伊双重国籍嫌疑人正在接受调查，他被怀疑是这起仍不明朗的阴谋中的“招募者”，或者被认为在其中扮演了重要角色。

媒体报道称，在前五名男子被捕后，这名男子也被列入监视名单。他的姓名尚未公布。

有什么证据表明这是一起与伊朗有关的阴谋？

英国方面指出此事与伊朗有关，但迄今为止一直对做出这一判断的原因秘而不宣。

周三，英国首相安迪·伯纳姆表示，有“强烈迹象”表明伊朗参与了这起事件，目前警方正在“进行一项持续、复杂且严肃的调查”。

他没有透露嫌疑人可能正在计划什么，也没有透露英国根据哪些情报怀疑伊朗参与其中，只是说他会在适当的时候“向大家通报更多信息”。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普表示，此案“可能”与伊朗有关，美国“长期以来”一直在监视嫌疑人。特朗普批评英国决定保释前五名嫌疑人。

以色列总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡表示，他的政府已就一起潜在的“伊朗支持的袭击”向英国发出警告，但没有具体说明这是否与英国皇家空军基地事件有关。

伊朗官员坚决否认与该事件有任何关联。伊朗外交部政治事务副部长马吉德·塔赫特-拉万奇称这些说法“虚假且荒谬”。

伊朗外交部周四召见英国大使雨果·肖特，就这些指控提出抗议。

费尔福德皇家空军基地发生了什么事？

周日清晨，当局接到两通电话，称费尔福德空军基地附近有可疑活动，包括三辆停放位置奇怪的货车和一群戴着兜帽和面具的男子。

不同寻常的是，第一个拨打英国紧急求助热线的人是后来被捕的嫌疑人之一。

警方迅速做出反应，在附近的惠尔福德地区逮捕了五名二十岁出头的英国男子，称他们涉嫌爆炸物犯罪。反恐警察随后接手调查，并表示这些人涉嫌策划“恐怖袭击”。

据英国反恐警察负责人劳伦斯·泰勒称，嫌疑人于周一获得保释，但仍受到“对其行动和与他人接触的严格限制”。

警方在搜查了空军基地附近的货车后表示，他们没有发现爆炸物，但确实找到了“一定数量的汽油”。

如果这是一起重大事件，为什么现场被捕的男子会被保释？

这是尚未解答的重大问题之一。

根据英国“反恐”法，警方可以在提出指控前拘留嫌疑人长达两周。然而，英国国家反恐安全办公室前负责人克里斯·菲利普斯告诉半岛电视台，如果当局发现几乎没有证据支持他们最初对“恐怖主义”的怀疑，那么他们的拘留时间就会短得多——通常只有24到36小时。

其他安全专家告诉半岛电视台，警方可能释放了前五名嫌疑人，因为他们认为这些嫌疑人不会构成迫在眉睫的安全风险，或者发现他们参与任何阴谋的可能性是无意的。

伦敦大学皇家霍洛威学院犯罪学教授安德鲁·西尔克告诉半岛电视台：“在涉及恐怖主义的案件中，如果当局相对确信这些嫌疑人不会构成实施或组织恐怖袭击的迫在眉睫的危险，则可以准予保释。”

他补充说：“有些人可能在不知情的情况下，或者以间接的方式卷入了潜在的恐怖活动。这种情况在目前的案件中似乎很有可能。”

拉夫堡大学国际关系与安全访问学者、前英国皇家空军高级军官阿夫扎尔·阿什拉夫也认为，警方可能已经评估认为，获释的五名嫌疑人不会构成“任何直接危险”。

阿什拉夫告诉半岛电视台：“我们可以合理地推断，警方认为这些人既没有构成任何直接危险，也没有任何可信的手段或意图对公众或政府设施造成进一步的危险。”

然而，他表示，他们获得保释并不一定意味着所涉事件“性质轻微”或“伊朗参与的假设已被否定”。

英国当局表示，他们将继续调查此案的各个方面，包括是否存在外国支持的“阴谋”。

Silke表示，当局可能会彻底分析所有嫌疑人的通信和互动，寻找可能组织他们参与犯罪活动的联系人信息，以及嫌疑人可能收到的任何款项。

他说：“当局可以调查所有这些联系，以确定它们是否指向外国政府来源或机构。”

西尔克补充说，当局还将调查皇家空军基地事件与之前在英国领土上实施的阴谋之间的任何联系。

菲利普斯表示，他认为这些嫌疑人可能是被外国势力通过网络招募，实施某种恶意活动，例如“放火烧东西”。

他表示，俄罗斯和伊朗近年来都涉嫌雇佣“傀儡”实施此类行动。“乍一看，情况似乎确实如此，但时间会证明一切，”菲利普斯补充道。

伊朗和俄罗斯此前也曾被指控策划在英​​国境内发生的阴谋。英国军情五处处长肯·麦卡勒姆去年表示，这些阴谋涉及“监视、破坏、纵火或暴力行为”。