Trump says US moved bombers from UK base after 'threats' / Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS - AFP/File
Trump says US moved bombers from UK base after 'threats'
President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States had withdrawn all B-1 bombers from a British airbase because of unspecified threats that he believed were linked to Iran.
Washington confirmed earlier that the bombers had left the RAF Fairford airbase -- used by the United States to launch strikes on Tehran -- even as the British government insisted the site was safe.
"There were some threats," Trump told reporters at the White House.
"And rather than tempting the enemy -- we'll capture the enemy and beat the enemy, but why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit, not very far."
Speculation has swirled about the incident since police were called to the base in southwest England on September 27 after a local farmer reported a group of men with several vans engaged in "suspicious" activity.
Despite a major counter-terrorism probe, five suspects arrested at the time and a British-Iranian national detained afterwards have all since been released on bail.
Investigators did not find any explosives in the vans, but "a quantity of petrol was recovered," according to counter-terrorism police.
Trump would not comment on a report that the threat involved attack drones, saying: "I can't tell you that but if they did they'll suffer greatly."
"We actually know the people that made the threat," said Trump, adding: "They would be linked to Iran."
- UK insists base safe -
The Pentagon confirmed the redeployment on Sunday.
"We can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States," it said in a statement.
The statement noted that "operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday expressed "confidence in the security of all of our bases."
American facilities "theoretically could be threatened at any moment, and that's why there's so much security built around them," Rubio said, adding that Washington had worked with London on the investigation and "they couldn't be more cooperative."
Two US officials told the New York Times that the bombers were moved after commanders received new threats about an Iran-backed plot. One US official said the new information was part of the same threat warnings that surfaced three weeks ago, but the situation became urgent in the past 24 hours, the Times reported.
Asked whether the base was safe, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham's official spokesman said: "Yes."
"We have tried and tested approaches to defend our bases around the country and throughout the world," he told reporters.
- Heightened security -
Speculation about the motives behind the incident ranged from terror threat to fuel theft, as energy prices in the UK hit record highs this week.
Burnham has said there were "strong indications that Iran played a part" in the incident, a charge rejected by Tehran.
Trump had previously rebuked British authorities for releasing the arrested men -- all in their mid-20s -- on bail.
Iran's embassy in London said it "categorically rejects and strongly condemns" speculation that Tehran was involved.
Adding to the mystery, British media reported that officers were alerted to the incident by one of the initial suspects, but police have not commented on the reports.
Security at the base had reportedly been heightened.
Britain gave Washington permission in March to use Fairford for "specific defensive operations into Iran," and US bombers and other planes have since been seen taking off and landing at the base.
Fairford is the only airbase on Britain's mainland used for this purpose.
The incident came after a farmer living in the village of Whelford, near the airbase, called the police after seeing three vans blocking a road and a group of masked men fleeing the scene.
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