A U.S. Air Force B-1 Lancer bomber is pictured on the tarmac at RAF Fairford base in Fairford, south-west England on September 27, 2026. (AFP File Photo)
The United States confirmed on Oct. 4 that it has withdrawn all B-1 bombers from the British airbase of RAF Fairford, with officials telling U.S. media that the move was linked to “new threats.”
Police were called to the base in southwest England on Sept. 27 after a local farmer reported a group of men with several vans engaged in “suspicious” activity.
The scare prompted a counter-terrorism probe and forced evacuations at 85 homes near the airbase, which was used by the United States to launch strikes on Iran.
Investigators did not find any explosives in the vans, but “a quantity of petrol was recovered,” according to counter-terrorism police.
A statement from a Pentagon official on Oct. 4 said “we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States.”
The statement noted that “operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time.”
An unidentified U.S. official told CNN that the bombers were moved after “an unspecified new threat,” with the source calling the latest threat a “real world incident.”
Speculation about the motives behind the incident ranged from terror threat to fuel thievery, as energy prices in the U.K. hit record highs this week.
U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said there were “strong indications that Iran played a part” in the incident, a charge rejected by Tehran.
