The United States has begun withdrawing its fleet of B-1 strategic bombers from British soil after President Donald Trump reacted with fury to Britain's handling of a foiled terror attack on the base housing them, and specifically to the release of all suspects within a day of their arrest.
The incident began last week when a British farmer's alertness likely prevented a major attack. He called police to report a suspicious group near RAF Fairford, a British air base that hosts American B-1 strategic bombers.
Police and internal security forces quickly arrested several suspects at the scene, who were driving large commercial vehicles loaded with barrels of petrol. Investigators concluded the group had been planning an attack on the Fairford bomber base.
But in a move that stunned American officials, British authorities released the suspects the next morning, less than 24 hours after the dramatic nighttime arrests, and despite emerging evidence of Iranian connections. Days later, another suspect was arrested, only to be released on bail shortly afterward.
Trump called the decision to free the suspects "inconceivable" and has now begun pulling the bomber fleet back to American soil, leaving a strategic vacuum in Europe.
