US Military Evacuates All Strategic Bombers from UK Air Base to Mainland

The U.S. military has evacuated all strategic bombers stationed at a British air base—which has been utilized for airstrikes against Iran—back to the U.S. mainland due to security concerns regarding terrorism.

The Associated Press reported on the 4th (local time), citing a U.S. Department of Defense source, that U.S. Air Force bombers previously deployed to Fairford Air Base in Gloucestershire, England, have been entirely redeployed to the U.S. mainland.

Fairford Air Base is known to have operated dozens of U.S. B-52 and B-1 bombers since the early stages of the war with Iran, which began in February of this year.

The Military Air Traffic Tracking Coalition, a private organization tracking military aircraft movements, captured formations of bombers leaving Fairford Air Base in large numbers on this day.

Previously, British police arrested five British nationals near Fairford Air Base on September 27 on charges related to explosives and terrorism.

It was confirmed that the three vans they were driving did not contain explosives, but were transporting a significant amount of gasoline.

A few days later, police arrested a British-Iranian dual national on charges of plotting a terrorist attack.

Britain, the United States, and Israel have all raised the possibility of Iranian involvement in this incident.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham stated, "There are strong indications that Iran played a certain role in the incident that occurred near Fairford Air Base last weekend."

U.S. President Donald Trump also mentioned the possibility that the suspects were linked to Iran, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, "There is clearly the hand of a foreign actor involved."

However, Iran has completely denied the allegations.

Regarding the allegations of Iran being behind this terrorism, The New York Times (NYT) highlighted circumstances suggesting that Iran is adopting Russia's hybrid warfare model.

The claim is that Iran recruits "one-off operatives" online who have no direct links to intelligence agencies to carry out terrorist acts with an obscured trail.

Adrian Shtuni, a U.S. counterterrorism expert, explained to the NYT that "the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps can cheaply and at any time acquire criminals and youths [as one-off operatives]" and that "there is a multi-layered intermediary network between the Revolutionary Guard and the operatives, so even if an operation fails, diplomats are not expelled and grounds for war are not created."

President Trump is currently weighing an agreement with Iran against the resumption of military operations against Iran.

When asked about related questions by reporters on the 3rd, he responded, "I have a decision to make regarding Iran," adding, "The only question is whether it will be the easy way or the hard way."

Amidst statements by President Trump that if an agreement with Iran is not reached, he could launch an attack after the midterm elections in November, it was also revealed that the United States has additionally dispatched an aircraft carrier and 10,000 troops to the Middle East.

(Photo: Getty Images)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.