Trump: 'Threats' behind the withdrawal of US bombers from the British base

He continued 'We know the people behind the threat (...) They are linked to Iran'.

The United States announced on Sunday that it had withdrawn all its bombers from the British Royal Air Force base after last month's incident, which remains unclear, led to the opening of a counter-terrorism investigation.

In contrast, British government sources confirmed that the base is safe.

Police were called to the base in southwest England on September 27 after being informed of 'suspicious' activity by a group of men and several vans.

Following this, 85 homes near the airbase used by the United States to launch strikes on Iran were evacuated.

National Counterterrorism Unit head Lawrence Taylor said investigators found no explosives in the vans, only quantities of gasoline.

A Pentagon official said in a statement on Sunday 'We can now confirm that all US bombers that were deployed at RAF Fairford have returned to their bases in the United States.'

The statement added that 'Operational security considerations prevented us from confirming the movements of our pieces and forces in real time'.

An anonymous US official told CNN that the bombers were moved after the emergence of a 'new, unspecified threat', describing the recent threat as a'real incident on the ground'.

The network quoted the official as saying that it was unusual to return the bombers to their original bases instead of transferring them to another base in the region.

The New York Times quoted US officials as saying that the bombers were moved after leaders received new threats about an Iran-backed plot targeting the base.

According to the newspaper, a US official said the new information falls within the warnings of the same threats that appeared three weeks ago, but the situation became urgent over the past 24 hours.

In response to a journalist's question on Monday, a British government spokesman confirmed that the base is safe.

He said 'We have effective means to defend our bases' in Britain and abroad.

Speculation about the motives behind the incident at the base ranged from a terrorist threat to fuel theft, amid record fuel prices in Britain this week.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there is 'strong evidence that Iran was involved' in the incident, an accusation Tehran rejected.

Six British residents in London arrested in connection with the incident, including a dual British-Iranian national, all men in their mid-twenties, were released on bail, drawing criticism from Washington.

National Counterterrorism Policing Senior Coordinator Vicki Evans said in a statement on Thursday that the investigation is 'extremely complex', adding that the police are considering 'all possible hypotheses, including the possible involvement of a foreign state'.

The Iranian Embassy in London announced that it 'categorically rejects and strongly condemns' speculation about Tehran's involvement in the incident.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote in a post on X that Burnham 'is knocking on the wrong door'.

- Security tightening -

The ambiguity increased after British media reported that one of the suspects initially informed the police about the incident, but the police did not comment on these reports.

Reports said that security measures at the base have been tightened recently.

In March, Britain granted Washington permission to use RAF Fairford for 'specific defensive operations within Iran', and since then US bombers and other aircraft have been seen taking off from and landing at the base.

Fairford is the only airbase on British mainland used for this purpose.

The US Air Force has been using RAF Fairford since the Cold War, and it was previously used in operations during the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the Iraq War in 2003.

Aerial footage showed that the vans appeared to contain barrels, while at least one of them carried a fake logo and phone number, giving the false impression that it belonged to a diesel fuel delivery company.