Two men have been charged with national security offences in connection with an incident at RAF Fairford, a US-operated airbase in Gloucestershire, England, prosecutors have announced.
Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, a British-Iranian dual national, has been charged with engaging in conduct likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service. Counter Terrorism Policing head Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said police believe the foreign intelligence service in question is Iran's.
Nouman Essghir, also 24 and a British national from Westminster, London, has been charged with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the United Kingdom. He was arrested at the scene near RAF Fairford on 27 September and re-arrested on 20 October.
Both men are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
The charges follow an incident on 27 September, when three suspicious vans were seen near the airbase. Armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts responded to the scene, and dozens of residents were evacuated from surrounding homes. No explosive materials were found, but a quantity of petrol was seized. A large cordon remained in place around the base for several days.
Abdulkarim was arrested more recently, following re-arrests in October that led detectives to interview him. Essghir had been charged under Section 4 of the National Security Act 2023.
Eight men in total have been arrested as part of the counter-terrorism investigation. Five of them are British nationals from London who were arrested near the airbase in September, initially on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act and subsequently on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act. Six men remain on police bail, all living in London and aged between 23 and 25.
A 25-year-old UK-Iranian national who was re-arrested in October on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service has been released without charge. He remains on police bail following his initial arrest on 1 October on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts.
AC Taylor said counter-terrorism police had seen "a range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state and, as the Director General of MI5 said just the other week, we are working together to intervene, identify and respond to that threat."
RAF Fairford has served as a forward operating location for the US Air Force for decades. In recent months, US B-1 and B-52 bombers had been flown from the base to the Middle East after the UK approved a request for it to be used for defensive strikes against Iran. Shortly after the September incident, the US withdrew its bombers from the site and returned them to the United States.
US President Donald Trump said the aircraft were removed due to "some threats" to the base, without providing specific details.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham last week said the activity at RAF Fairford was likely to have been coordinated in Iran. Iran's ambassador to the UK has denied this. Iran has previously denied any involvement in the incident.
Last year, the UK said there had been 20 credible Iranian-backed threats to kill or kidnap individuals based in the country.
