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 RAF Mildenhall, 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?”
In an Oct. 23 memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned that Iran “has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel. The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries.”
Asked about Clayton’s memo by reporters in Paris Monday, Rubio said: “We’ve addressed it by moving people away from the threat.”
At the White House, Trump told reporters that he felt resuming strikes on Iran “doesn’t seem to be a very necessary thing,” citing ongoing negotiations with the Islamic Republic and the preference of Middle Eastern partners like Saudi Arabia to continue blockading Iranian trade rather than resuming a full-scale war.
“Should there be any change with respect to developments in the Middle East,” the president wrote on Truth Social, “the United States of America is ‘locked and loaded’ and ready to go.”
