Two British nationals charged over RAF Fairford incident

LONDON — Two British nationals have been charged with national security offenses over an incident at RAF Fairford airbase last month, with one of them suspected of assisting Iran's intelligence service.

RAF Fairford had been used ​by US bombers to carry out ⁠strikes on Iran, but they were withdrawn ​on security grounds shortly after five British ​men were arrested outside the military base in southwest England in the early hours of ​September 27.

Iran has denied any involvement in the incident.

Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, was charged on Tuesday with assisting a foreign intelligence service following the incident near the airbase in Gloucestershire.

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, Head of National Counter Terrorism Policing in the ⁠UK, ​said police believed the ​country Abdulkarim was assisting was Iran.

Nouman Essghir, also 24, has been charged with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK on August 22. Both men will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later.

Another man, a 25-year-old UK-Iranian national, who was re-arrested last week, has been released without charge but remains on police bail following his first arrest earlier this month, Counter Terrorism Police have said.

Taylor said Essghir, a British national from Westminster, had been charged on Tuesday under Section 4 of the National Security Act 2023. He was first arrested at the scene near RAF Fairford on 27 September, and re-arrested on 20 October.

Eight men in total have been arrested as part of the counter-terror police investigation, including five near the airbase in September.

Those five were initially arrested on suspicion of committing offenses under the Explosives Act and then further arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.

Six men remain on police bail.