UK anti-terrorism police on Tuesday announced the first UK airbase plot charges, saying 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 charged. One was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service, believed to be in Iran. The other was charged with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the United Kingdom.
These are the first charges over the incident at RAF Fairford, in southwest England. Police arrested seven suspects in the days after the incident, before releasing them on bail.
UK airbase plot charges: what happened at RAF Fairford
Police were called to the Royal Air Force base at Fairford in the early hours of September 27, after a local farmer reported a group of men with several white vans engaged in suspicious activity.
“While some of the circumstances remain unclear, we are confident that this activity was conducted on behalf of a foreign intelligence service,” Taylor told reporters on Tuesday outside Metropolitan Police headquarters in London.
Days after the incident, the United States withdrew all its B-1 bombers from the base. The withdrawal underlined how seriously the scare was taken on both sides, even though police have not set out the full detail of what the group is alleged to have planned.
The two men charged
Police charged 24-year-old Nouman Essghir with entering or approaching a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the interests of the UK.
Essghir was arrested at the scene in Gloucestershire and then released on bail, before police re-arrested him a week ago. The police chief said the charge against Essghir related to suspected activity more than a month earlier, on Saturday, August 22, without giving any details.
The second man charged, 24-year-old Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, was arrested after being interviewed under caution over the last week, police said. He has been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service.
“In this case, we believe that country to be Iran,” the police said.
Both of the charged men live in Westminster, a district in central London. Six other men remain on bail, one of them a dual UK-Iranian national who had been re-arrested last week.
A week ago police said they had re-arrested two of the suspects, one of whom has now been charged.
A wider warning from counter-terrorism police
Taylor said Counter Terrorism Policing had seen a range of incidents in recent months that it believed had been directed by the Iranian state.
“This is not a theoretical threat. This is something we are responding to every day,” he added.
He acknowledged that some of the police decisions made during the investigation can sometimes appear illogical.
“But I want to make it very clear that there will always be a good reason or rationale behind them,” he said.
The police announcement did not set out the next court steps for the two charged men. What it did establish is a clear sequence: a September 27 scare at a base used by US forces, seven arrests, a US bomber withdrawal, re-arrests a week ago, and now the first two charges, with one charge reaching back to activity on August 22.
That timeline will now be tested in court, where prosecutors will have to prove the foreign intelligence link that police have asserted in public.
Frequently asked questions
Who has been charged over the RAF Fairford incident?
Nouman Essghir, aged 24, was charged with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK. Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, also aged 24, was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service believed to be Iran.
When did the incident happen?
Police were called to RAF Fairford in the early hours of September 27, 2026, after a farmer reported men with several white vans acting suspiciously.
Why are these charges significant?
They are the first charges over the incident. Seven suspects were first arrested and released on bail, and the US withdrew all its B-1 bombers from the base days afterwards.
What happens to the other suspects?
Six other men remain on bail, including one dual UK-Iranian national who was re-arrested last week, according to police.
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