Britain just caught five men trying to bomb the base America uses to hit Iran

Five men have just been arrested near RAF Fairford.

That's the Gloucestershire air base America has used for months to bomb Iranian targets.

And Donald Trump says the men were planning to hit the base itself.

So how did this start? A neighbour called the police.

They saw three vans heading towards the base at around 12:45am this morning, about 18 hours ago.

Police put a 400-metre cordon around the vans. The Army's bomb disposal unit came and examined them.

First, police arrested the men under the Explosives Act. Then they re-arrested them under the Terrorism Act, on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.

Counter-terrorism police are now running the investigation. Around 85 households nearby, in the village of Whelford, were evacuated as a precaution.

Then Donald Trump spoke to reporters.

He said the men were looking to do quote "big damage to our fort".

And he called the British police response amazing.

So that's the US President saying, in public, that RAF Fairford itself was the target.

British police haven't gone that far.

Gloucestershire Police's Assistant Chief Constable, Richard Ocone, confirmed the five arrests. Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said only that quote "we are in the early stages of an investigation".

Neither one named a target.

And here's something Trump's version doesn't square with.

Police say this was not an intelligence-led operation. That means they had no advance warning of a plot. It started with one phone call, not a tip-off.

So Trump's claim that the men were watched for a while? No one in the UK has confirmed that.

Now, why does one British air base matter enough for an American president to comment on a British arrest at all?

Because RAF Fairford has been central to the war with Iran since it began at the end of February. American forces fly out of this base to bomb Iranian missile sites that threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz.