The United States Air Force has ordered the departure of all bombers it had stationed at the British Royal Air Force base in Fairford, after the "terrorist" incident recorded last Sunday in the vicinity of the military complex, which has so far resulted in the detention and subsequent release of at least six people.
"We can confirm that all U.S. bombers deployed at the RAF base in Fairford have returned to their home bases in the United States," a senior official from the U.S. Department of Defense told Europa Press.
The official, who avoided directly linking the event to the decision regarding the B-1s stationed at the British base, explained that "operational security prevented" the Pentagon from "confirming the movement" of its assets and personnel "in real time," a restriction that has now been lifted.
Despite the withdrawal of the aircraft and their crews, the Department of Defense, led by Pete Hegseth, emphasized that "the Air Force personnel operating the U.S. bomber fleet, including the B-1, B-2, and B-52, remain ready to provide precision global strike capabilities, even through operations that take off and land from the continental United States, anywhere and at any time."
In his statements, the official did not detail the specific objective of the deployment of the bombers in Fairford and limited himself to recalling that "the U.S. Air Force bombers routinely operate worldwide to support the readiness of forces at a global level and meet operational requirements."
During the early hours of Sunday, a "major incident" was declared at the base, where there is a U.S. military presence, and dozens of nearby homes were evacuated. Security forces intercepted three "suspicious vehicles" and arrested five young people aged between 23 and 25, all of whom are British residents in London.
One of the detainees reportedly called the emergency number about an hour before a local farmer alerted the Police about "a large group" of masked individuals lurking near the vehicles.
On Thursday, a sixth suspect was arrested, a 25-year-old man with dual British and Iranian nationality, who was finally released this Saturday, a day on which searches were also carried out in two homes located in central London.
The Fairford base, in the northeast of the Southwest region of England, near the border with Wales, has been used in recent months as a deployment point for American bombers in the context of the open conflict in the Middle East following the surprise offensive launched on February 28 by the United States and Israel against Iran.
To date, the facilities housed B-1 bombers after the then British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, authorized in March "defensive" operations by the United States from British territory, a decision harshly criticized by Tehran, which accused London of directly involving itself in the conflict on Washington's side.