Symbolic imagePrime Minister Andy Burnham says the IRGC almost certainly directed the Fairford plot; MI5 calls it "not unique". Separately, Norwegian Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, was jailed for 20 years over a UK murder plot for an Iran-linked crime gang.
RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, is a British air base used by US Air Force bombers. US officials now link its security to a suspected Iran-backed plot, amid existing tensions between the United States and Iran.
Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for travelling from Norway to the UK to carry out a murder for a crime gang linked to Iran, according to Reuters and The Guardian. He was arrested in Huddersfield with two guns and live ammunition.
A court in Hamburg on Thursday sentenced two men born in Afghanistan to prison for acting on behalf of Iran, including plans to kill the Green politician Volker Beck. FAZ reports that the case also covers attack plans against Josef Schuster, and that Beck is demanding consequences.
MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said on Tuesday that Iran has shifted to targeting UK military sites. He also confirmed Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 Brexit referendum, with little effect.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Monday that the plot targeting RAF Fairford was highly likely coordinated in Iran and almost certainly directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the UK sanctioned two Iranian nationals. Iran's ambassador told UK officials that Tehran denies involvement and is willing to assist the investigation.
Teddy Young, 24, from Bedfordshire, a serving member of the Royal Navy, has been charged with two offences under the National Security Act after his arrest by counter-terror police, and was due at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday. The foreign power has not been named, and police say the case is not connected to ongoing investigations at the RAF Fairford airbase.
Two Latvian men, aged 32 and 36, were arrested early on Thursday inside the perimeter of RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, the Guardian and the Financial Times report. They are held on suspicion of trespass, criminal damage and entering a prohibited place, and Le Monde reports that nothing suggests a link to the 27 September incident near Fairford.
Police arrested a 22-year-old British man in London on Tuesday over the suspected plot near RAF Fairford. The US had pulled its B-1 bombers from the base on Sunday.
The Pentagon confirmed that all US bombers have left RAF Fairford in England. Washington cites Iran-linked threats, while London says the base is safe.
The Pentagon confirmed on Sunday that all US bombers have left RAF Fairford in England. US officials cite threats of an Iran-backed attack on the base.