The arrests followed a call to Gloucestershire Police in the early hours of a Sunday morning reporting three suspicious vehicles travelling toward RAF Fairford. Officers detained the five men near Whelford, a village lying directly east of the base. A bomb disposal team was deployed to examine vehicles in the area, and a 400-metre cordon remains in place as forensic and military experts conduct what counter-terrorism police described as an extensive examination of the three vans.
RAF Fairford has served as a staging post for US warplanes conducting defensive strikes on Iran.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing, said investigators are examining whether those arrested were proxies, or individuals who were knowingly or unknowingly acting on behalf of a foreign state. The BBC reports the operation was not intelligence-led, meaning it originated from an on-the-ground observation rather than prior surveillance.
Whether those men understood the nature of what they were allegedly doing, and on whose direction, remains entirely open.
Gabriel Fenech 
Alexandre Noir 
Dua Mifsud