By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — The U.S. Air Force has evacuated air refueling tankers from their base in eastern England due to a threat from Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Two tankers stationed at RAF Mildenhall were diverted to Germany on Monday, and several other tankers were relocated to other bases in Europe later in the day, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the decision. U.S. officials decided to redeploy the aircraft after being alerted about the new threat on Monday, the Journal said.
A European Command official said they were aware of the reporting when contacted by The Associated Press, saying only that the service rotates aircraft between locations “for a variety of reasons including training and real world requirements.”
“U.S. military aircraft are hosted in accordance with access, basing and overflight agreements with our allies and partners,” the official said while speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on sensitive military matters. “Due to operations security, we will not provide further information on movement of assets.
“For operational security reasons, we do not discuss specific force protection measures. Our installations remain vigilant and work closely with our host nation counterparts.”
RAF Mildenhall, a British base operated by the U.S. Air Force, hosts the 100th refueling wing, the only permanent refueling wing in the European region. It operates the KC-135 Stratotanker, a four-engine jet aircraft with a wingspan of 131 feet that can carry up to 83,000 pounds of cargo.
The report comes less than two months after the Air Force withdrew its bombers from another U.S.-run base in Britain, RAF Fairford, as police investigated a suspected terror plot linked to Iran. Bombers flying out of RAF Fairford had been used to strike Iran during the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
Five men were detained on Sept. 27 after three suspicious vans were spotted traveling toward RAF Fairford. The U.K.-owned base has been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East, including the ongoing Iran war.
Other arrests followed and two men have been charged under the National Security Act.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said it doesn’t comment on the activity of other nations.
“Aircraft and other assets move regularly according to operational requirements,” the ministry said in a statement.
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Emma Burrows contributed.
