UK Probes Iran Link to RAF Fairford Bomb Plot; US President Trump Claims Threat Foiled

British counter-terrorism police are investigating a potential link between Iran and a bomb plot targeting RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a base used by the United States Air Force for operations against Iran. Five men were arrested near the base on suspicion of terror charges.

If an Iranian connection is confirmed, investigators are expected to focus on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its elite foreign operations arm, the Quds Force. This unit is responsible for covert operations overseas and has increasingly come under scrutiny for allegedly using criminal networks and proxies to carry out such missions.

The Quds Force, headed by Esmail Qaani since January 2020, is tasked with building, funding, arming, and coordinating Iran's allied armed groups across the Middle East, but its activities have extended globally. European security services have previously uncovered Iranian plots involving assassinations, kidnappings, and attacks targeting dissidents, Jewish sites, and Iranian opposition figures.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum reported in October 2025 that his agency had tracked more than twenty potentially lethal Iran-linked plots in a single year. These operations have notably employed ordinary criminals and gang members as proxies. One instance cited is that of Ramin Yektaparast, a German-Iranian gang leader, who was allegedly recruited by the Quds Force for plots targeting Jewish sites in Germany. He was suspected of helping organize attacks on synagogues in November 2022. Yektaparast reportedly provided intelligence about his Iranian handlers during an interrogation, which helped disrupt further terror plots in Europe.

Intelligence sources described Yektaparast's recruitment by the Quds Force due to his reputation as a violent gang leader with extensive European contacts and his willingness to carry out assigned attacks. He was reportedly passed to Quds Force Unit 840, a secretive branch described as the regime's 'terror export' unit, which operates a network of criminal proxies across Europe.

Beyond Europe, Iran's foreign operations have reached the United States. A 2022 US indictment accused an IRGC-linked operative of attempting to recruit an assassin on American soil for a plot targeting former US National Security Advisor John Bolton. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former State Department official Brian Hook have also been under extended protective security due to alleged ongoing threats from Iran.

In July of this year, Israeli media reported, citing unnamed intelligence sources, that the Quds Force had established a unit allegedly working with Mexican cartel networks and members of the Iranian diaspora to target President Trump and other senior US officials. This allegation has not been independently corroborated.

The incident at RAF Fairford unfolded when a local farmer spotted three suspicious vans heading towards the base. The farmer alerted police and neighbors, leading to a swift response by armed officers who arrested five men. The arrests occurred shortly after Iran's Revolutionary Guard warned in July that any base used in air strikes on the Islamic Republic was a legitimate target, with Iran's ambassador previously stating that allowing US bombers to launch from RAF Fairford was an 'important matter for our self–defense.'

President Trump, upon returning to Washington, hailed the US-UK cooperation in foiling the attack, stating that the individuals were known to police and were 'looking to do big damage' to US forces. He described the operation as a testament to the successful collaboration between the two nations.