British counter-terrorism officers are examining a possible Iranian connection to the suspected bomb plot uncovered near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on Sunday, amid growing speculation about who may have been behind the alleged attack.
Should investigators establish a link to Tehran, scrutiny is expected to focus on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), particularly its elite overseas operations unit, the Quds Force.
The Quds Force has faced mounting international attention over allegations that Iran relies on criminal networks and allied proxies to conduct covert operations abroad.
Created following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the IRGC was formed to defend the Islamic Republic and preserve its revolutionary order.
It has since grown into one of Iran’s most influential military and security organisations, while the Quds Force has taken responsibility for missions conducted outside the country.
The force is led by Esmail Qaani, often described as a “shadow commander”. He assumed the role in January 2020 after his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
Qaani oversees a network that builds, finances, equips and coordinates Iran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East. However, the Quds Force’s reach has extended well beyond the region.
European security agencies have uncovered a series of alleged Iranian operations in recent years, including assassination and kidnapping plots, as well as attacks aimed at dissidents, Jewish communities and Iranian opposition figures.
Police pictured arresting five men on terror charges near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire
Investigators may examine the role of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including its overseas operations branch, the Quds Force
Researchers monitoring Iran’s foreign operations have documented 218 plots worldwide since 1979, with approximately half occurring in Europe.
The number of alleged operations has risen in recent years. In October 2025, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the agency had identified more than 20 potentially deadly plots linked to Iran during a single year.
Among the most alarming elements has been the reported recruitment of ordinary criminals and gang figures to act as proxies.
One prominent case involved Ramin Yektaparast, a German-Iranian gang leader and former Hells Angels figure who was allegedly recruited by the Quds Force for a campaign targeting Jewish sites in Germany.
Yektaparast was suspected of helping arrange attacks on synagogues in Essen and Bochum in November 2022. Reports said shots were fired at the sites and a Molotov cocktail was thrown.
Western intelligence officials later questioned him about his alleged ties to the Iranian regime.
During questioning, he was reportedly able to provide details about his Iranian handlers and the targets they intended to strike. Intelligence from the case helped authorities disrupt additional terror plots in Europe.
Yektaparast had escaped to Iran before facing trial in Germany over the 2014 murder and dismemberment of a fellow biker. He was later killed in Tehran in an assassination attributed to Israel’s Mossad.
Before his death, intelligence sources said the Quds Force had recruited him because of his reputation for violence and his broad network of contacts across Europe.
People familiar with the case said Iranian operatives valued his willingness to carry out any attack they ordered.
He was subsequently passed to Quds Force Unit 840, a secretive branch described by intelligence sources as the regime’s ‘terror export’ unit.
Iranian defectors and Western intelligence sources have described Unit 840 as operating a network of criminal proxies across Europe.
According to those sources, a so-called ‘German Network’ was built around several assassination cells targeting Iranian dissidents and Jewish community figures.
One alleged operation targeted dissident musician Shahin Najafi during a concert in Hanover in September 2023.
The Quds Force is headed by ‘shadow commander’ Esmail Qaani, who took command in January 2020
Yektaparast was suspected of helping organise attacks on synagogues in Essen and Bochum in November 2022
The plot was reportedly timed to coincide with the anniversary of Iran’s ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests but was disrupted before the attack could take place.
German authorities have also arrested individuals accused of being recruited through Iranian-linked criminal networks, including a Danish national accused of surveilling the German-Israeli Society and the home of a senior figure in Germany’s Jewish community.
Swedish authorities separately exposed alleged Iranian efforts to use criminal gangs to threaten Jewish, Israeli and opposition targets, while Dutch authorities have attributed the killings of Iranian dissidents to Tehran.
In July 2025, France, Britain, the United States, Germany and several other governments jointly condemned what they described as Iran’s use of transnational repression, including assassination attempts, kidnappings and intimidation carried out on foreign soil.
The reach of Iran’s foreign operations has extended across the Atlantic too.
A 2022 US indictment accused an IRGC-linked operative of attempting to recruit an assassin on American soil for a plot targeting former US National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former State Department official Brian Hook have also been placed under extended protective security because of what US authorities described as continuing threats from Iran.
And in July of this year, Israeli media, citing unnamed intelligence sources, reported that the Quds Force had established a unit known as ‘Mukhtar’.
This unit is allegedly working with Mexican cartel networks and members of the Iranian diaspora to target President Donald Trump and other senior US officials.
That allegation has not been independently corroborated, however.
The history of these alleged operations will now be under scrutiny as British investigators try to establish who was behind Sunday’s incident at RAF Fairford.
Three vans were spotted heading towards the airbase, which is used by the United States Air Force for operations against Iran.
RAF Fairford had already been placed on high alert, with security stepped up in recent weeks.
The base lies less than a mile from the centre of the tiny Cotswolds village of Whelford.
The plot was dramatically foiled after a quick-thinking local farmer spotted the suspicious vehicles.
She sped away before calling police and alerting her neighbours on a local WhatsApp group, telling them to lock their doors.
President Trump hailed US-UK co-operation to foil the attack – and insisted that the group were known to police and were ‘looking to do big damage’ to US forces
Minutes later, armed police descended on the quiet village, home to just around 100 people, and arrested five men.
Dramatic footage and pictures from the scene showed the young, shirtless suspects sitting on the ground with their hands cuffed behind their backs.
In July, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned that any base used in air strikes on the Islamic Republic was a legitimate target.
Iranian ambassador Seyed Ali Mousavi previously said that allowing US bombers to launch from RAF Fairford was an ‘important matter for our self–defense.’
Last night as he landed back in Washington from Illinois, President Trump hailed US-UK co-operation to foil the attack – and insisted that the group were known to police and were ‘looking to do big damage’ to US forces.
When asked if the US knew about the attack, he said: ‘We know all about them. You’ll be hearing about it very soon. We caught them.’
Earlier in the day he said: ‘It was fantastic. Working with Britain, it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort, and working with the British worked out great.
‘It may have been Scotland Yard, I don’t know. We worked with a lot of them. We had them under view for a long time, and we got them. Thank you.’
The five arrested men are in custody and can be questioned for a fortnight under UK anti-terror laws.
