The US Air Force withdrew a dozen B-1B bombers from RAF Fairford with what The New York Times characterized as “unusual speed” over the weekend. “The withdrawal was highly unusual: Such moves are rarely made so quickly from an allied air base in a peacetime country thousands of miles from a combat zone.” According to the Times, the sudden mass movement of so many bombers on such short notice happened so quickly that the Air Force was still scrambling to get air refueling support for them, even as they were taking off for their flights back to the U.S.

The sudden withdrawal followed days of threats issued by President Trump that he might order the resumption of major combat operations against Iran sometime after the Nov. 3 mid-term elections. Supposedly, the redeployment came in response to new information about an imminent threat from Iran. Neither US European Command, which only confirmed that the bombers had returned to the US, nor the British government would comment. American officials on Sunday declined to specify the nature of the new information that prompted the rapid withdrawal of the Air Force bombers, some of which had just arrived in the past week as part of a normal rotation of forces, the Times reported. One U.S. official said the new information was part of the same threat warnings that surfaced three weeks ago, but specific details and a sense of urgency spiked in the past 24 hours, alarming commanders.

A week earlier, British police had arrested five men in the middle of the night in close vicinity to the Fairford base, on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist plot. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham then tried to tie that to Iran. On Oct. 3, the police arrested another man, described as a dual UK-Iranian national, suspected of involvement in the plot. All six men were, however, released on bail while the investigation proceeds.