Five arrested over suspected plot to attack UK military base

Nick Miles (0:00)

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Nick Miles. And in the early hours of Monday, the 28th of September, these are our main stories. Five men are arrested in Britain on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offensive. After suspicious vehicles were reported near an airbase used by the US military. We have an exclusive report from Yemen where fighting is intensifying as Iranian-backed Houthis continue to advance on the key city of Taiz and politics and sport collide as Ireland's football team beats Israel in a match overshadowed by the Gaza conflict. Also in this podcast, Venezuelans take to the streets demanding the return of the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Cory Cart (0:49)

Will she ever be allowed back in and the early days of Route 66 are not a fun story where people really want to talk about it is that post-war, that open road represented freedom and Route 66, it just kept reinventing itself.

Nick Miles (1:05)

As the famous road celebrates its centenary, we take a ride down memory lane.

Speculation is growing over who was behind an attempted attack on an air force base here in the UK, which is also used by the US military. Five men have been arrested on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences after suspicious vehicles were reported near the base in rural England. Earlier this year, the British government gave US warplanes permission to use RAF Fairford as a staging post for strikes on Iran. Donald Trump praised British police for arresting the five men.

Donald Trump (1:45)

Working with Britain, it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation.

They were looking to do big damage to our fort and working with the British worked out great. It may have been Scotland Yard, I don't know. We worked with a lot of them. We had them under view for a long time and we got them.

Nick Miles (2:05)

Well, despite President Trump's claims that the men were under view for a long time, local police have said the arrests occurred after a member of the public contacted them. Our diplomatic correspondent, James Landell, told us more about how this story unfolded.

James Landell (2:19)

Well, it began with a telephone call to the local police in the early hours of the morning from a driver passing by who saw these three vans parked in a strange way and alerting the authorities and then it followed from there. It is a global story simply because this kind of threat against military infrastructure across Europe is now something that is forming a pattern. The idea of hostile activity spilling out of conflicts around the world back to European capitals and countries, back to even to the United States. So the interesting question will be, what was the threat? Where did these men come from? Because at the moment, there's an awful lot of information we don't know. We know that the Iranians have directly threatened the British authorities for allowing the Americans to use the base.

There was a formal statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran in July making that threat. We also know that in the last few days, the UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband met the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mr. Rai Raghchi, and explicitly warned him against the hostile activity of foreign states in the UK and reinforcing UK resolve against such threats. So the idea of Iran being a potential line of inquiry for this investigation is clear and it's obvious. Some people are looking to Moscow. We know that Russia has been threatening to step up its hybrid activity and attacks against NATO countries. The Danish intelligence warned about that only a few days ago.

Germany has now formally blamed Russia for a drone attack against Leipzig Airport. And we know that the Russian embassy in London over the summer formally warned the UK of an increasingly higher price that it would pay for its support for Ukraine. So that might be a line of inquiry too.

Nick Miles (4:11)

James Landau. Earlier this month, Houthi fighters made dramatic advances against government forces, taking control of hundreds of kilometers of Yemen's coastline close to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, declaring, as it did so, a naval blockade for Saudi shipping. That's a huge concern around the world because the Houthi advances mean they can threaten the millions of barrels of oil that flow through the strait every day.

The Yemeni government forces are now pushing back. Fighting is intensifying around the city of Taiz. Our senior international investigations correspondent Nawal al-Maghafi and her team are the first international news organization to reach Taiz since those Houthi advances. She traveled with government forces to one of the closest positions to the Houthis.