The Pentagon has confirmed the withdrawal to the United States of the arsenal of bomber aircraft that operated on missions against Iranian targets from a Royal Air Force base in the south of the United Kingdom. The departure of the F-1s from the RAF Fairford headquarters has been carried out with the utmost urgency hours after the release, under police caution, of a young man of dual British-Iranian nationality suspected of planning terrorist acts.
He is the sixth individual that the Counter Terrorism Police (CTP) has arrested - and provisionally released shortly afterwards - in connection with a security incident recorded on the perimeter of the Fairford base at the end of last month.
The six suspects are in their twenties and five of them are of British birth. President Donald Trump has criticized his release on parole, which the CTP has justified in the logistics and effectiveness of an "enormously complex" operation that is being investigated from "every possible angle."
The Pentagon reserved the reason for the urgent withdrawal to its bases in the United States of the 12 F-1s that have participated in bombings in Iran from the United Kingdom. The measure responds, according to The New York Times, to "specific details" about the security risks in Fairford detected in recent weeks.
The New York newspaper quotes an anonymous "US official" who states that the "new information was part of the same threat alerts that emerged three weeks ago, but the specific details and sense of urgency intensified in the last 24 hours and alarmed commanders."
A Downing Street spokesperson said that, although he would not comment on "the military operations of other nations", the base is secure, the BBC reports. He referred to US President Donald Trump's statements last week, in which he "praised our police, defense and security services" in relation to this base. He also referred to statements last week by British Defense Minister Wes Streeting, who said that the United Kingdom has "tried and tested strategies to defend our bases across the country and around the world."
So far, Streeting remains silent on the decision to withdraw the US from Fairford, which, according to the BBC, responds to "operational" and precautionary issues. "It was a military decision, rather than a political one - taken at an operational level - and communicated by the US Army to its British counterparts," says the British public corporation.
However, Andrew Griffith, defense spokesman for the Conservative Party, which is holding its annual conference this week, criticized the lack of initiative by Prime Minister Andy Burhnam, after stating days ago that there are "clear indications" of Iran's complicity in the Fairford incident. The Iranian embassy in London has denied any involvement in the alleged attempted attack on a military base that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard considers a "legitimate target."
"It is really worrying to think that the US considers that it cannot protect even one of its most sophisticated operational bases in Europe," criticized the 'Tory' politician.
