RAF Fairford incident ‘almost certainly’ directed by Iran’s IRGC, Burnham says

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A suspected attack against RAF Fairford was “highly likely” to have been directed by Iran’s security force, the IRGC, prime minister Andy Burnham has said.

Five men were arrested close to the Gloucestershire airbase, which is used by the US, on Sunday 27 September. The suspects, who were British citizens from London in their 20s, were held over explosives and terrorism offences, but have since been released on bail.

Mr Burnham added: “We will not tolerate these threats on our soil. We will crack down on Iran’s use of criminal networks, using our full range of powers to target them and their funding streams. And we will bring further sanctions to restrict the capacity of Iran and the IRGC to bring us harm”.

He later told Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch: “We will continue to work with our US counterparts on RAF Fairford”.

Mr Miliband announced the designation of two Iranian nationals, named as head of counterespionage for the IRGC and a facilitator of plots against Iranian dissidents, for their “role in facilitating or engaging in hostile activity on behalf of the Iranian regime, with the clear intent of threatening, planning or conducting attacks overseas”.

Last week, the US air force pulled its bombers from RAF Fairford and redeployed them back to their home bases in the US.

According to reports in the US media, the decision to remove the bombers was in response to renewed security concerns about the safety of the base in Gloucestershire.

Three suspicious vans were stopped near the airbase on Sunday 27 September. No explosive materials were found in the vans, but a quantity of petrol was seized, police said.

Roger Macmillan, security expert and former Head of Security at Iran International, said: “The prime minister says it is almost certain that Iran’s IRGC directed an attack on British soil. Today's sanctioning of two men who live in Tehran is welcome, but it will not stop these attacks in the future. If the government believes what it is saying, it must bring forward the law to ban the IRGC and take stronger steps to resource the police and security services further to protect British subjects. Warning words are not enough."

He added that it was a “grave mistake” for foreign secretary Ed Miliband to have shaken hands with the Iranian foreign minister in a meeting last month, saying it gave “the stamp of legitimacy to this terror exporting Islamist regime”.