Two men taken back into custody
British police announced Tuesday that they had rearrested two men on suspicion of helping Iran's intelligence service. The arrests relate to a suspected plot last month at RAF Fairford, an air base in western England that is run by the United States.
According to Counter Terrorism Policing, one of the men is a 24-year-old British national. The other is a 25-year-old who holds both U.K. and Iranian nationality. Both were arrested under the National Security Act. Police said the pair had been arrested before but were released on bail while investigators continued their work.
Five other men arrested earlier in the case remain on bail, police said. No one has been charged so far, CBS News reported.
What happened at the base
Police are investigating what they describe as a suspected terror plot on Sept. 27 targeting RAF Fairford. The base has been used to launch bombing missions against Iran during this year's war, according to the report.
The incident prompted a large emergency response in the rural area around the base. Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes, while armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts moved into the area.
Police later said they had found a quantity of gasoline, an accelerant, in three vans at the site. They said they had not found any explosives. British authorities have linked Tehran to the incident, and early this month the U.S. Air Force pulled all of its bombers from the base following the security scare.
What police are saying
Laurence Taylor, who leads National Counter Terrorism Policing in the U.K., said in a statement that detectives are pursuing "many lines of enquiry involved in this hugely complex investigation."
He said the case remains active. "This is very much a live investigation, and our evidence gathering continues, but at this time our position remains the same; we consider it highly likely that there is Iranian state involvement," Taylor said.
He added that investigators are still trying to establish how far that involvement went and what it was meant to achieve. "Our investigators are continuing to examine what that level of involvement was and the ambition behind it," he said.
Iran's response
Iranian officials have said several times since the war began that any bases used to attack their country would be considered legitimate targets, according to CBS News.
Even so, Iran has denied a role in the Fairford incident. In an earlier statement, the Iranian Embassy in London said the government "categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets attempting to link Iran" to what happened.
What comes next
The rearrests show that the investigation is still moving, even though no charges have been filed. Police have not said what prompted them to take the two men back into custody, and they have not described what role, if any, each of the seven men arrested in the case is believed to have played.
For now, the central open question is the extent of Iranian state involvement. Police say they consider such involvement highly likely, while Tehran rejects the claim. Investigators say their evidence gathering is continuing.
