By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-09-28 16:45:52 | Updated at 2026-09-28 20:21:51
8 hours ago
A local farmer driving home from a party in the early hours of Sunday morning may have helped foil the suspected terrorist plot targeting an air base used by U.S. forces in the United Kingdom.
The farmer, who has not been identified because of concerns for her safety, told The Telegraph that she called police after spotting suspicious white vans blocking a quiet country road near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. She turned her car around and saw a group of masked men, some wearing balaclavas, scattering into nearby trees and fields, with some running toward the air base.
“I just thought what the hell are they doing … I saw a group of Middle Eastern-looking young guys running off through the trees,” the farmer told The Telegraph. “Some of them had masks or balaclavas on, and they all scattered ahead of us as we drove back past.”
She added that some of them ran toward the air base, which has served as a forward operating location for the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command and has recently been used to launch B-52 and B-1 bombers targeting Iran.
“We realised this was something pretty serious,” she said. “I mean, you don’t see masked men running around at half one in the morning in the countryside near a secure air base and not have concerns.”
The farmer said the vans appeared suspicious from the moment she saw them. One of the white vans was marked “FUEL 2YOU” in red lettering and displayed a phone number that appeared to be one digit short.
“Thinking about it now, and what could have happened if they had tried to stop me from driving away, I am quite lucky,” the farmer told the newspaper. “It is pretty incredible, realising you had a brush with potential terrorists face to face and may have foiled a terrorist plot. It was clear they had just got there. Thank God we spotted them.”
In addition to calling police, the farmer said she also sent a message to a local WhatsApp group warning residents to lock their doors.
Counter Terrorism Policing, which is leading the investigation, said police first received a call at approximately 12:45 a.m. about three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be travelling toward the air base, about an hour before the farmer said she called emergency services. Armed officers responded and arrested the five men initially on suspicion of offenses under the Explosives Act, and then further arrested them on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act. The five suspects were reportedly stripped down after officers suspected they might be wearing suicide vests, and a bomb disposal robot was seen examining the vehicles.
The men have since been released on bail, according to the BBC.
The Telegraph reported that authorities are investigating whether there is a link to the Iranian regime.
Police established a 400-meter perimeter around the vans while the British Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit examined the vehicles. Approximately 85 households were evacuated as a precaution, according to police. Authorities opened a nearby “leisure center” for evacuees who did not have friends or relatives to stay with.
“A nearby leisure centre has been opened to provide a safe space for anyone evacuated and unable to go to friends or relatives,” police said. “We’d like to thank the residents who have left their homes this morning for their understanding and support. We appreciate the disruption this will have caused and would like to reassure them we are working as quickly as we can to get them back in their properties.”
President Donald Trump praised the arrests while speaking to reporters Sunday and said the United States had worked with British authorities on the case. “The arrest in the UK was fantastic,” he said. “Working with Britain, it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation.”
Trump said the suspects were “looking to do big damage” and that the group had been under watch “for a long time.”
Locals also claimed that security around the air base had increased in the past week, with the farmer noting, “We thought something was going on as they had housed B1 bombers at the base until earlier this week when they were moved. And then suddenly they started blocking entrances to the air base.”
She said heavy machinery, including bulldozers and tractors, was positioned around the entrances to the base.
“By Friday they had sent all their civilian staff home, and then because this is a small village, we started noticing people who weren’t local and the suspicion was they were plain clothes police of some kind,” she added. “We all knew something unusual was going on.”
Tristan Wilkinson, the Cotswold District councillor for Lechlade, Kempsford and Fairford South, told The Telegraph that the security measures around the base were visibly different from normal.
“I think the one thing we can say is that if you look around the base, they’ve put heavy machinery in place,” Wilkinson said. “That’s unusual. That tells me that the base was on a heightened level of security.”
Another local said a group of U.S. soldiers stopped people at gunpoint near the base.
“They made them all put their hands out of the car, identify themselves, and then ultimately made them turn them round and would let them drive home that way,” the local said. “So we obviously knew they were pretty worried about something.”
