US B1 Lancer bombers get ready for departure while parked on the apron at RAF Fairford in March.Donald Trump has appeared to contradict US Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the reason by American bombers left an RAF base.
The president said the B1s had all returned to the US due to “some threats” they faced in the UK.
His comments came just hours after Rubio told journalists it had been a routine redeployment.
Around a dozen US bombers were unexpectedly withdrawn from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on Sunday, prompting BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner to say there was “panic at the Pentagon”.
It came just days after five men were arrested near the base on suspicion of terror offences.
The men, who were all British nationals from London, were later released on bail.
A sixth man was arrested in London on Thursday on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts, and has also released on bail.
Prime minister Andy Burnham has said that Iran “played a part” in the alleged bomb plot.
On Monday, Marco Rubio said he “wouldn’t directly tie” the redeployment of the planes to the security alert close to the base.
He added: “It’s not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in and old planes going out.”
But Trump later blew a hole in the Secretary of State’s claims.
Asked if the planes had been moves in response to a security threat, the presidenr said: “Yeah, I think we can say that. They didn’t fly out by accident.
“No, but there were some threats and rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy.
“But why should we keep them there? So we moved them around a little bit, not very far.”
Trump was backed by his vice-president, JD Vance, who said the had been redeployed “out of an abundance of caution, trying to protect our guys”.
Earlier in the day, Downing Street had been forced to deny that the RAF base was unsafe.
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