The British Justice has released on bail the five citizens of that country arrested on Sunday for an alleged terrorist attack attempt against the British airbase in Fairford, which has been used by the United States to bomb Iran from March to July.
The release "does not mean that the investigation has concluded," according to the spokespersons of the security forces of the United Kingdom, who do not rule out that the suspects - all from London and aged between 23 and 25 - were acting "consciously or unconsciously" in the service of a third country.
Given that Fairford has been the only military facility in Europe from which combat missions against Iran have been carried out - and of considerable scale, carried out by heavy bombers B-1 and B-52 - the possibility that the Islamic Republic of Iran was related to the incident is being investigated. The British Defense Minister, Wes Streeting, stated on Monday to the Bloomberg news agency, "I do not want to draw a line between what is happening in Iran and this incident," since "it is too early to speculate on the motivation" of the alleged criminals, who are not terrorists (at least, judging by the legislation used to investigate them). The Iranian government has categorically denied its involvement in any act in the United Kingdom.
The release diminishes the seriousness of an incident that led to the evacuation of about 250 people from the village of Whelford, near the base. According to the US President, Donald Trump, the arrested individuals wanted to cause "great harm" to the base, which, in a tone reminiscent of the Wild West and ignoring the fact that it is a British military installation, he referred to as "our fort."
Following their custom, the British authorities are handling the entire case with great caution, so official information is scarce and speculations are abundant. The Prime Minister himself, Andy Burnham, has urged caution. Burnham, who is in Liverpool at the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, which he leads, chaired an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday to address the case.
In reality, the incident had already been deflating hours before the announcement of the release. The detainees had gone from being arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Law to being under the jurisdiction of the Police and Crime Law, or as it is known in the UK, PACE. This meant that they should be released or formally charged by Wednesday at the latest, once 96 hours had passed since their arrest. Under the Anti-Terrorism Law, the arrest can be extended to two weeks if authorized by the Justice system.
The five had been arrested while traveling towards the Fairford base in three white vans that were later examined by a robot designed to detect and deactivate explosives. The only thing known about these vans is that they contained what the British authorities have referred to as "military material," an alarming yet imprecise term.
The account of the arrest has also become considerably complicated. In the absence of an official version, the British media have mentioned a farmer who allegedly alerted the police with two phone calls, at quarter to one and at one-thirty in the early hours of Sunday.
However, what seemed to be a case of citizen collaboration - and police incompetence - has started to take on bizarre tones. According to the UK media, the neighbor in question may have alerted the authorities not about the appearance of the alleged criminals, but about their detention, or even about a scene bordering on the surreal in which police officers wearing balaclavas would be chasing terrorists (also wearing balaclavas) through the English countryside, to protect the American "fort" in the peaceful cattle region of Gloucestershire.
Regardless, that version seemed to suggest that the action had not been detected by the British security services. But on Monday, a series of journalistic reports indicate that security in Fairford had been reinforced since at least the previous Tuesday. Locals in the area have told the BBC public radio and television network that police presence had visibly increased, and they reported cases where officers told them to stay inside their homes.
It also remains unclear whether this has been a joint British-American operation - as Donald Trump has stated - or if only the UK security has been involved. On Sunday, as soon as the arrests were known, Donald Trump declared that "we had (the alleged terrorists) under investigation," and that "it has been fantastic working with Great Britain." However, London has indicated that Washington did not participate in the operation that led to the arrests.
Since Israel and the United States began the war against Iran, that country has always responded through conventional means - mainly missile and drone attacks - launched by its defense forces and its allies in the Middle East. There have been no terrorist attacks. Since the 1980s, Tehran has not sponsored attacks outside the Middle East, and in the last 25 years, even in that region, its support has been limited to groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, and the Houthis, who carry out guerrilla actions (sometimes accompanied by large-scale massacres, such as on October 7, 2023, in Israel), but not terrorist attacks.