The US military removed some aircraft from an English air base for the second time in as many months Monday following a threat from Iran.
The report by the Wall Street Journal didn’t specify whether the threat to the RAF Mildenhall base, located about 80 miles northeast of London, was imminent or more general, but two refueling tankers en route to Mildenhall were diverted to Germany Monday morning while other tankers were moved off the base later in the day.
Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, as well as the leaders of the intelligence committees in both chambers — the so-called “Gang of Eight” — were briefed on Iran’s threats to US interests Monday as Congress returned to DC following the midterm elections, according to the Journal.
Monday’s action followed the removal of a fleet of 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford, 90 miles west of London, in early October in response to the exposure of a drone attack plot by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). That redeployment also followed the foiling of an alleged terror plot involving a van bomb targeting the base, which led to the arrest of five suspects.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that there were “strong indications” that the Iranian government played a part in the bomb plot, while Vice President JD Vance acknowledged the bombers were pulled from Fairford out of an “abundance of caution.”
“We had an idea that there might be a threat,” President Trump told reporters Oct. 5. “So why would I leave them there?”
