Iran directed 'crude arson' plot against RAF Fairford as Trump claims he stopped Tehran getting a nuclear weapon

From the Newshound archive · first published 10 October 2026.

Iran is accused of directing a crude arson attack against RAF Fairford, the US B-1 bomber base in Gloucestershire from which aircraft were evacuated last week amid fears of an Iranian drone strike. The plot, reported as the latest in a series of Iranian operations targeting Western military installations, exposes the reach of Tehran's sabotage network thousands of miles from the war zone. Trump declared on Friday he had stopped Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and claimed he is "about to settle, or win" the US-Iran war.

Satellite imagery has detected 'significant' activity at an Iranian nuclear site struck by Israeli aircraft on March 3, days after joint US-Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Khamenei.

Iran has successfully hit US bases across the Gulf — Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia — with the majority of US casualties in the war resulting from those base attacks.

Trump warned that without his intervention Iran would have 'blown up the Middle East' and targeted US cities including San Diego and Los Angeles with nuclear missiles.