Two Londoners charged in alleged Iran-directed plot against US bomber base in England

British prosecutors have charged two London men with national security offenses over an alleged Iranian intelligence operation that targeted RAF Fairford, the Gloucestershire air base the United States uses to launch long-range bomber missions. Nouman Essghir, 24, and Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, both of Westminster, were charged on Oct. 27 and appeared the same day at Westminster Magistrates' Court, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.

Armed police were called to RAF Fairford in the early hours of Sept. 27 after reports of suspicious vehicles near the base. Officers arrested five men and evacuated nearby residents while bomb-disposal teams searched three vans, which were found to contain gasoline canisters but no explosives, counter-terrorism police said. The United States subsequently withdrew bomber aircraft from the base. Essghir is charged under Section 4 of the National Security Act, covering unauthorized access to a "prohibited place," over an alleged reconnaissance visit to film the base on Aug. 22. Abdulkarim is charged under Section 3 of the act, covering assistance to a foreign intelligence service; prosecutors say he acted as an intermediary for a handler known only as "Ali" and received roughly £70,000, about $93,000, for his role.

Iran blamed

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, said investigators are "confident this activity was conducted on behalf of a foreign intelligence service," which they believe to be Iran. Iran has denied involvement. Other outlets, including CP24, reported this autumn that Britain's security services have tied dozens of arrests over the past year to Iranian-directed plots on British soil, part of what officials describe as an escalating campaign of state-backed sabotage attempts across Europe.

Britain's National Security Act 2023 created the two offenses cited in the case as part of a rewrite of the country's espionage laws. Both carry a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment, and the Fairford case is among the first prosecutions to test the newer law against an alleged state-directed covert operation, according to ABC News 4's account of the investigation. A 25-year-old dual British-Iranian national, arrested separately on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, was released without charge but remains on police bail, as do six other men detained during the initial search.