Five British men arrested near a Royal Air Force base used by American bombers to strike Iran walked out of custody on bail Monday — and it did not sit well in Washington. President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both publicly criticized British counterterror police over the release, with Trump telling reporters in the Oval Office he was "surprised that they released them. I wouldn't have done that."

The five men, all in their mid-20s, were arrested Sunday morning in a village near RAF Fairford on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act. The Gloucestershire base has been used to launch American B-2 and B-52 bombers during the seven-month war with Iran, and the U.S. briefly pulled its bombers from the base following the security scare, according to CBS News reporting on the aircraft withdrawal.

Released, but "under investigation"

All five were freed on bail Monday. The head of the UK's Counter Terror Policing unit stressed the men remain "subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others" and "absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of enquiry," according to details of the bail release reported by CBS News. None of the men have been charged, and authorities have not reported finding explosives or weapons at the scene — a detail that has fueled speculation in British media that the men may simply have been attempting to steal fuel rather than stage an attack.

"IRAN PLAYED A PART."

That is how UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham characterized his government's assessment of the incident, according to his comments relayed by CBS News. Rubio went further, calling the plot "very serious" and saying it "clearly involved" a foreign actor, while Trump suggested that actor "might be" Iran. Tehran has flatly denied any connection; its embassy in London said the regime "categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations" tying it to the arrests.

The episode lands at a delicate moment for the US-UK relationship, with American bombers still flying missions out of British soil nearly seven months into the Iran war and Washington increasingly impatient with allies it sees as moving too cautiously. British police, for their part, say the investigation is ongoing and that bail conditions — not a decision to drop the case — explain why the men are no longer in custody. No court date has been set.

RAF Fairford has quietly become one of the most important American-linked installations in Britain since the war with Iran began seven months ago. Built originally for D-Day operations and later expanded by the U.S. Air Force to handle its largest aircraft, the base's long runway has made it a regular stop for B-52 and B-2 bomber deployments supporting strikes deep inside Iranian territory. That strategic role is precisely why any security breach there draws outsized attention in Washington.

The arrests also land against a backdrop of growing concern in the UK and across Europe about Iranian-linked plots on Western soil. British police separately charged two Iranian nationals last week with plotting an attack on Manchester's Jewish community timed around Yom Kippur, a case U.K. officials have cited as evidence that Tehran is pushing covert operations onto British streets as the war grinds on. Whether the Fairford arrests turn out to be connected to that broader pattern, or to something far more mundane, remains for investigators to determine — and for now, bail conditions rather than formal charges are the only thing keeping the five men under any legal restriction at all.