2 men charged with UK national security offenses over incident at US-run military base

Two men were charged Tuesday with national security offenses over a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run military air base in England, police and prosecutors said.

British-Iranian dual national Mohmed Abdulkarim and British citizen Nouman Essghir, both aged 24 and from London, were charged under the National Security Act, the Crown Prosecution Service said. They are due to appear in court later Tuesday.


Abdulkarim is charged with assisting Iran's intelligence service and Essghir with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the U.K.

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RAF Fairford, in western England, has been used by American bombers to strike Iran during this year's war.

Essghir was arrested outside the base on Sept. 27, when armed police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area. Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes as police and army bomb-disposal experts searched for explosives.

Police later said they had found a quantity of an accelerant - gasoline - in vans at the scene, but no explosives.

Essghir was initially released on bail before being re-arrested last week. Abdulkarim was arrested in the past week. Six other men have been arrested and released on bail as investigations continue.

British authorities have linked Tehran to the incident, which led the U.S. to pull its bombers from RAF Fairford. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the apparent plot was  almost certainly  directed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

Iran has denied involvement, although it has previously said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.

Earlier this month, the head of Britain's MI5 spy agency warned that both Iran and Russia were expanding their attacks against the U.K., and that the RAF Fairford incident was not unique.

Ken McCallum, who leads the U.K.'s domestic security service, said Tehran is seeking to intensify its at
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