Five men caught with vans full of petrol near RAF Fairford may have been “criminal proxies” who were “duped” into a much more serious attack than they expected, former police officers have told The i Paper as counter-terror officers continue to investigate the case.
The men, who are British and from north and west London, were arrested close to the base in Gloucestershire – which is used by the US Air Force – after one of their group called 999, reported.
It has led to speculation they may pulled out of the plot at the last minute.
Experts believe the group, who may have been regarded as vulnerable or already within the criminal underworld, might have been coerced into acting without knowing the full extent of the plot.
Although the investigation remains ongoing, Andy Burnham said there were “strong indications that Iran played a part”.
The head of counter-terror policing has previously said police were keeping an open mind but one possibility was that the men “either knowingly or unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state”.
Israel-bound flight diverted after ‘fight between pilots’
A Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv had to be diverted this morning after a physical fight between the plane’s two pilots, Israeli officials have told local media.
Emergency code triggered
Two hours after taking off from Dubai, the flight signalled an emergency code, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
The plane, carrying around 150 people, mostly Israelis, was diverted to land in Saudi Arabia instead of Ben-Guiron airport.
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Air force responds
- Israel dispatched fighter jets to the incident site
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held urgent consultations
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Flydubai issues statement
A Flydubai spokesperson confirmed the flight “experienced an incident while en route”, and that updates will be issued as further details become available. “Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities,” it added.
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Energy bills to soar by 16% in January – what it means for your money
The typical household bill is set to jump by £276 in January, according to an industry forecaster, with others warning of a “second energy crisis” on the horizon.
Second price rise predicted in the New Year
Bills are set to go up tomorrow by 4 per cent in line with the energy regulator Ofgem’s price cap increase. Energy consultancy firm, Cornwall Insights, has warned the next price cap increase in January could be even more, bringing a typical annual bill to £1,999.
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Government promises ‘breathing space’
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the this morning that rising energy costs were “very difficult indeed”, and the Government would be looking at “any measure that can give people breathing space”.
This came as the CEO of energy supplier EDF, Simone Rossi, warned the UK is “walking into a second energy crisis”.
Bleak winter ahead
“I’m doing what I can, removing say VAT off bills. But it is very difficult indeed, and it’s why the Middle East situation needs to command a lot of our attention.”
Andy Burnham
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What we know as three teenagers die after car plunges into River Wear
Three people have died and a 17-year-old arrested after a car plunged into a river in Sunderland.
Car broke through barrier
- A black Audi A3 smashed through a roadside barrier at 1.30pm on Tuesday near Wearmouth Bridge
- Two boys and a girl were killed
- A 17-year-old who was in the car has been arrested
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Surviving boy arrested
The boy who reached safety has subsequently been arrested in connection with the incident. He remains in police custody at this time. He is currently in hospital with what have been described as non-serious injuries.”
NOrthumbria police spokesperson
Three things to know as economy grows by 0.5%
The economy has grown by slightly more than initially expected, as figures for growth from April to June this year increased from 0.4 per cent to 0.5 per cent by the Office for National Statistics.
Industries performing well
- The boost came from the services sector growing 0.6 per cent.
- The construction industry also grew by 0.8 per cent.
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Last year revised down
Growth for 2025 as a whole was a little lower than previously estimated.
Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics, explained that the figures initially given for last year were too high.
Growth for 2025 was revised from 1.3 per cent to 1.2 per cent.
What’s driving growth?
The average UK household’s disposable income increased by 1 per cent, contributing to economic growth overall.
The rise was down to increased income from benefits, which at £5.3bn outstripped the increase in salaries at £2.8bn. The annual increase of state pensions and working age benefits in April contributed to this jump.
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Fat Bear Week has a winner and his story will melt your icy heart
The final of the competition, which asks viewers of live feeds to name the bear that has put on the most weight in Alaska, came down to a battle of the nepo-bears, and the victor triumphed over adversity.
What is Fat Bear Week?
The competition is run by Katmai National Park and Reserve in Alaska, one of the most chilly and remote (yet deliciously salmon-rich) places on Earth. There were 2,200 brown bears up for the title. Among them was Chunk (or Bear 32, they all have numbers), who weighed in at an estimated 1,200lbs (544kg) to take the 2025 crown.
Top two contenders
After a week of voting, it came down to a battle of the sexes. Representing the ladies: Bear 910. Born in 2016, she is the daughter of former Fat Bear Week champion, Beadnose.
In the men’s corner: Bear 89. His name is “Backpack”, because in his first year as a cub (pictured), back in 2006, he would often climb onto the back of his mum, also a former winner, when she swam in the river.
A hard start in life
Naturalist Mike Fitz, the creator of Fat Bear Week, said the winning bear “knew hardship at an early age”. He got a bad injury as a cub, which made him vulnerable as he struggled to keep up with his mother.
Backpack won by 103,344 votes to 98,253.
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However, Dominic Murphy, former commander of Counter Terrorism Command for the Metropolitan Police, told The i Paper: “They may have realised what they were doing and potentially got concerned and scared about that and called the police.”
“Russia and Iran have been using criminal proxies for a very prolonged period of time to great effect to commit incidents and attacks and sabotage here in the UK,” said Murphy, who was involved in counter-terror policing for 22 years. “My own experience with Iran is that this is exactly the sort of thing they would do.”
Tehran has denied any link with the incident, but both Iran, and Russia, have been known to use proxies to carry out crimes on their behalf on UK soil.
With these kinds of hostile state attacks “we’re often talking about either people that might be considered vulnerable or are involved in criminality already”, Murphy said.
“We have seen a lot of people being duped into doing something. They might even think it’s set up as some kind of big prank or as something else. And it turns out to be a very serious activity that you’re conducting on behalf of a foreign state.”
Murphy added that he had seen people “self-report or hand themselves in” because they thought they had got involved in something much bigger than they were expecting.
He said the men who were arrested were of the typical profile – men in their early to mid-20s, hired by foreign states to carry out attacks in the UK.
‘999 call to force response from authorities’
Suspicion has fallen on Iran because of a series of attacks that have been blamed on Tehran’s proxies in recent months.
Roger Macmillan, an expert in Iranian counter-terrorism and former director of security at the London-based independent Iran International TV, thinks that if the Fairford incident was an attempted Iranian attack, it would represent a “significant” shift from those that have come before.
Macmillan said that the level of “detail and planning” – which would have involved buying or renting vans, setting up a burner phone and travelling to Gloucestershire – made him wonder if the “bizarre” 999 call had a hidden significance.
“It could simply be that they have done this deliberately [made the call] to signal some sort of intent, some capability… to instil fear in people,” he added.
In this scenario, the men might have been told to call 999 to “actually draw out the response… They might have been told, well, [if] nothing happens by this time, call 999, you’re going to get arrested, but we’re going to pay you X.”
If this was the plan, it had been successful, Macmillan said: “They’ve had the UK talking about this non-stop for four days.”
‘Attempt to back out of attack’
However, Andrew Barnes, former head of intelligence at the Met Police, said he thought it was “definitely a possibility” that one of the five men tried to alert the authorities when he realised the seriousness of the planned attack.
“In many forms of crime and this kind of stuff, where people decide that it’s not what they want to do, it’s not what they thought, they back out,” added Barnes, who has also held roles in counter-terror policing,
He is more sceptical of the idea that the operation was a “dry run” for a larger planned attack later on.
“I would be surprised because obviously all that does is effectively is alert the authorities,” he said. “To plan going out with several vans and lots of people masked up and things like that… as a precursor to actually doing something is rather daft.
“Hostile reconnaissance is normally far more subtle than that.”