US Scrambles to Pull Off ‘Urgent’ Evacuation of Bombers Due to Iran-Backed Plot

The United States military scrambled to withdraw all 12 of the B-1 Air Force bombers stationed at an air base in southern England due to threats of an Iran-backed terror plot, according to multiple reports on Sunday.

Those bombers were pulled from RAF Fairford, the same air base where five suspected terrorists were arrested near last week; Sunday’s evacuation was due to a new threat. The withdrawal was a “highly unusual” move, The New York Times reported, but was “deemed so urgent that some of the planes and their flight crews left while aerial refueling aircraft were still being scrambled to support their flights to the United States.”

“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States,” the Pentagon said in a statement shared with the Wall Street Journal.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported American officials were aware of an Iranian scheme to attack the bombers and kill military personnel at the base. RAF Fairford has been used by the U.S. to carry out strikes against Iran during the war.

“A branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had recruited U.K. nationals to carry out the plot” last week, the Journal reported, “which involved multiple steps including a diversion in the neighborhood nearby, according to a senior U.S. official.”

British cops were alerted to the looming attack last week at 12:45 a.m., when three suspicious vehicles were reported near the base, which is about 100 miles west of London. Fox News reported 85 homes were evacuated nearby while the Army’s bomb squad investigated the scene. The authorities pulled explosives and chemicals from one of the vans, and the five men were arrested on terrorism charges; another man was later arrested as well.

New U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham posted on X he understood the arrests would be “deeply concerning” to his fellow Brits. But he said he would “urge people not to speculate while the authorities establish the full facts.”

At the same time, President Donald Trump applauded the British authorities for doing an “amazing” job nabbing the suspects, and added the U.S. and U.K. had them “under view for a long time.”

“We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort, and working with the British worked out great,” Trump said.

The Journal reported on Sunday that Iran’s theocratic leaders denied plotting to attack RAF Fairford; the report noted Iran warned in July that any British bases used by the U.S. would be “legitimate target” to get attacked.

Watch CNN’s report above.

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