The farmer who alerted British police to suspected Iranian terrorists planning a major terror attack on the UK’s RAF Fairford airbase said she saw 'Middle Eastern–looking' men in balaclavas and hooded tops.
The incident happened in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the UK police, who arrested five men near the airbase used by the United States to strike Iran.
The farmer, a woman who has not been identified, called police on seeing three vans blocking a quiet country road surrounding the base as she drove home from a party in the early hours. She turned her car around after she saw 'Middle Eastern–looking' men in balaclavas and hooded tops scattering into the trees and across the fields towards the base.
She called the police at 12.45 am and alerted her local WhatsApp group, warning people to lock their doors. Police swooped in on the men and arrested all five. A 400-meter cordon was also put in place around the vehicles while the army’s explosive ordnance disposal unit examined them. The authorities also ordered the evacuation of 85 households near the airbase.
The woman said she believed her headlights had startled the men, following which they fled. She, however, believes that she spotted more than five men. “The worst thing is that we saw more than five people and they kept saying they arrested five. They had the helicopters searching,” she told Sun.
She said she felt suspicious because a phone number and lettering on the back of the vehicles appeared to be fake. “I just thought, what the hell are they doing… I saw a group of Middle Eastern–looking young guys running off through the trees. Some of them had masks or balaclavas on, and they all scattered ahead of us as we drove back past. Some of them ran into the fields, and some of them turned to run towards the air base. We realised this was something pretty serious,” she added.
The RAF Fairford airbase is a regular host of strategic assets, including bombers and U-2 spy planes. The US uses the base to operate B-2 bombers for its combat operations against Iran. Last July, Iran’s IRCG had warned that it would target any base that was used by the US forces to launch attacks against the US. Iranian ambassador Seyed Ali Mousavi said the decision to allow American bombers to launch from Fairford had become an 'important matter for our self–defence '.
