Web Desk(National Times)- UK anti-terrorism police said on Tuesday that two men have been charged with national security offences after an incident last month at a British airbase used by the United States, linking the scare to Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, said two British men aged 24 had been charged: one with assisting a foreign intelligence service, believed to be in Iran, and another with entering a prohibited place for a purpose \u201cprejudicial\u201d to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the first time that anyone has been charged over the incident at RAF Fairford, after police arrested seven suspects in the days afterwards, before releasing them on bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police were called to the Royal Air Force\u2019s Fairford base in southwest England in the early hours of Sept 27 after a local farmer reported a group of men with several white vans engaged in \u201csuspicious\u201d activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile some of the circumstances remain unclear, we are confident that this activity was conducted on behalf of a foreign intelligence service,\u201d Taylor told reporters on Tuesday outside Metropolitan Police headquarters in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Days after the incident, the US withdrew all its B-1 bombers from the base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suspects charged
A week ago police said they had re-arrested two of the suspects, one of whom has now been charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police charged 24-year-old Nouman Essghir with entering or approaching a \u201cprohibited place\u201d for a purpose \u201cprejudicial\u201d to the interests of the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Essghir was arrested at the scene in Gloucestershire and then released on bail, before police re-arrested him a week ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The police chief said the charge against Essghir related to \u201csuspected activity\u201d more than a month earlier, on Saturday Aug 22, without giving any details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second man who has been charged, 24-year-old Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, was arrested after being interviewed under caution over the last week, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service. \u201cIn this case, we believe that country to be Iran,\u201d the police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taylor said Counter Terrorism Policing had seen \u201ca range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not a theoretical threat. This is something we are responding to every day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both of the charged men live in Westminster, a district in central London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six other men remain on bail, one of them a dual UK-Iranian national who had been re-arrested last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taylor acknowledged that some of the police\u2019s \u201cdecisions made during our investigations can sometimes appear illogical\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut I want to make it very clear that there will always be a good reason or rationale behind them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Web Desk(National Times)- UK anti-terrorism police said on Tuesday that two men have been charged with national security offences after an incident last month at a British airbase used by the United States, linking the scare to Iran. The head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, said two British men aged 24 had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n