US military aircraft leave second UK base, report says

Several US military aircraft have left a second airbase in Britain on Monday, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Two US refuelling tankers that were using the RAF Mildenhall airbase in Suffolk diverted to Germany earlier on Monday, while several other tankers at the base were moved to Germany and other locations later in the day, the WSJ report said.

This action was taken in response to a threat from Iran, the newspaper reported, citing US officials.

This comes weeks after the US withdrew its bombers from RAF Fairford airbase over a suspected Iran-linked security incident.

An MoD spokesperson told the BBC: "We do not routinely comment on the activity of other nations. Aircraft and other assets move regularly according to operational requirements."

Asked about the US evacuating aircraft from RAF Mildenhall, Education Secretary Lucy Powell told BBC Breakfast: "Obviously I can't comment on ongoing operational matters but rest assured that we take the security and safety of our bases incredibly seriously and we will always act on security intelligence when we need to."

Former UK National Security Adviser Lord Ricketts told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are talking about an airbase which houses these large tanker aircraft. Of course, they are large targets, an airbase has a long perimeter, so they are inevitably vulnerable."

He added: "Nobody knows at this stage what this information was. I suspect part of it is an abundance of caution."

The movements reported at RAF Mildenhall follow a security incident at RAF Fairford, a US-operated airbase in Gloucestershire.

A major incident was declared after three suspicious vans were seen near that base in September. It later emerged that the US had pulled its bombers out of the base and returned them to America.

Two British nationals appeared in court in October in connection with an alleged Iran-linked plot. Eight men have been arrested as part of the counter-terror police investigation.