No10 insists UK military base RAF Fairford is safe after US withdraws bombers

What the report says

Downing Street has said RAF Fairford remains safe after the United States removed all of its bombers from the Gloucestershire airbase, according to BBC World News. The Pentagon confirmed the withdrawal on Sunday, with the aircraft understood to be about a dozen B-1 bombers returning to their home stations in the US. BBC reporting said American media linked the move to a newly emerging threat, following an incident near the base last week.

The base has been under scrutiny since 27 September, when police were called to reports of three suspicious vehicles near the site. Counter-terrorism police are investigating the wider incident. Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of terror offences and later released on bail, and a sixth man, described by the BBC as a UK-Iranian national, was also arrested and released on bail.

A Number 10 spokesman declined to discuss foreign military operations but said the base was safe. BBC World News reported that Whitehall sources did not dispute that Washington’s decision was a response to events at RAF Fairford, and that the move was understood to have been taken at an operational rather than political level. The station has long been used by the US Air Force, and in recent months has supported bomber deployments connected with US operations in the Middle East. The episode matters because it combines base security concerns with broader tensions involving Iran and Western forces.