'They didn't fly out by accident': Trump reveals why US pulled bombers from Fairford

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump said the US deliberately moved bombers from RAF Fairford after threats to the base, saying officials know who made them but not naming them.

The Pentagon said on Sunday that it had removed about a dozen B-1 bombers from the British base to their home stations in the US.

Trump made the comments on Monday, October 5, while speaking to reporters outside the White House before departing for Nebraska.

Trump says bombers did not leave by accident

Asked whether a specific threat prompted the move, Trump said, “Yeah, I think we can say that. They didn't fly out by accident.”

“There were some threats,” Trump added.

He said the US chose to move the aircraft rather than “tempting the enemy,” adding, “So we moved them around a little bit. Not very far.”

Trump also said Washington “actually knows the people that made the threat,” but did not identify them or provide details about the threat.

The comments followed a September 27 incident near RAF Fairford, when police were alerted to three “suspicious vehicles” near the air base.

The incident is being investigated by countert*******m police, according to BBC.

Five men were initially arrested on suspicion of radical extremism and later released on bail, the outlet reported. 

A sixth man, a British-Iranian national, was also arrested and released on bail.

US and UK officials describe movement as precaution

The US and British governments have not publicly established who was behind the September 27 incident. 

Whitehall sources have not disputed that Washington’s decision to remove the bombers was connected to the incident.

Earlier on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to directly tie the incident to the bomber movement. 

He said moving military assets was not unusual and cited exercises, redeployments and changes involving personnel and aircraft.

“It’s not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in and old planes going out,” Rubio said.

Rubio also said the US still had “full confidence in the security of all its bases” and that British authorities had been “very cooperative” since the incident.

Vice President JD Vance later said the bombers were moved out of “an abundance of caution.” 

He also accused Iran of continuing what he described as “acts of t******m against the US and against a lot of other people.”

Iran has denied involvement

The question of possible Iranian involvement remains disputed. 

Days after the Fairford incident, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were “strong indications” Iran had played a part, without providing further details.

Rubio separately told Fox News the incident “clearly involve[d] the hands of a foreign actor,” also without identifying one.

Tehran has strongly denied involvement, as per the outlet. 

In July, Iran said, “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces.”

RAF Fairford, in Gloucestershire near the Cotswolds village of Whelford, has been used by the US Air Force as a forward operating location for decades.

In recent months, B-1 and B-52 bombers have flown from the base for operations in the Middle East after the UK approved a US request to use it for defensive strikes on Iran, according to the outlet.