UK police probe foreign links to US-operated airbase bomb plot

UK police release on bail five terror suspects detained over US-run

air base incident in Fairford as counterterror detectives say they

are probing possible links to Iran or Russia.

US President Donald Trump meanwhile says "knows the answer"

as to which party is responsible for the incident.

Five British men arrested on explosives and terror charges near the

US-operated British air force base RAF Fairford have been released on bail.

Counterterror detectives say they are investigating

"multiple lines of inquiry," including whether there is a link to Iran.

During the same briefing, police say

a citizen report of suspicious activity around RAF Fairford

led to the arrest of the five individuals.

The farmer who alerted Gloucestershire Police after spotting

three suspicious vans blocking a road in the village of

Whelford near the airbase says neighbours had noticed

heightened security around the base

and machinery being moved in days before the incident.

She says a "large group of men" fled the scene

as soon as they spotted her and that she had to contact several departments,

including the Ministry of Defence, before her call was picked up.

Residents were later evacuated from 85 homes in the village Sunday,

and have not been able to return as of Monday morning.

A bomb-disposal crew was spotted examining the white vans with robots.

US President Donald Trump, who a day earlier praised the swift arrest of the

five individuals, now criticises this latest decision to release the them on "cashless bail."

During a press briefing at the Oval Office in Washington, Trump says he

would not have made that same call, while addressing reporters' questions

about who is behind the alleged bomb plot.

Iran's embassy in London on

Monday rejected what it described as "unfounded and malicious

speculations" linking Tehran to the five British nationals.