The three white vans navigated through a picturesque stretch of rural England in the middle of the night, winding toward a British air base that America is using to wage war on Iran.
It was 12:45 a.m. on Sunday when one of the men inside the vans — for reasons still not clear — dialed emergency services, giving authorities their first sign that a terrorism plot they had received intelligence on almost two weeks earlier might be in motion.
The police scrambled an urgent, armed response, speeding to the scene and arresting the man and four associates. A grainy photo later leaked to the media showed the five men sitting shirtless on the side of a road, their hands bound behind their backs.
Why the man called the police remains the subject of debate among investigators trying to unravel what happened that night, security officials from several countries told The New York Times. They asked for anonymity because the inquiry remains open.
It is one of many puzzles that the authorities have yet to piece together.
The call did set off a cascade of events, including the arrest of the men on suspicion of terrorism, the frantic evacuation of 85 homes, a bomb disposal robot searching the vans for explosives, and a national security meeting convened by Prime Minister Andy Burnham. He said later that there were “strong indications that Iran played a part.”
But a part in what, exactly? Mr. Burnham and other British authorities have offered few answers. The vans contained no explosives when the police searched them. And within a day, all five men were released on bail, the kind of treatment typically given to common criminals, rather than terrorism suspects. The authorities could also have been hamstrung by the need to keep evidence classified and thus unable to be cited in criminal court.
The police have cast a wide net in trying to find those responsible for hiring the men, whom one official described as “unwitting chumps.” U.S. and British officials believe the operation is connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or a separate military headquarters in Tehran. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, has rejected the accusations.
This account is drawn from interviews with investigators, local officials and residents as well as security officials in Britain, Germany, Israel and the United States who had knowledge of warnings about a plot to target U.S. bases in Britain and Europe. Some officials declined to reveal details of the case. Others conceded that the full story remains hazy, even to them. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the investigation.
For Britain, the events of the last six days have been a vivid — if at times mystifying — reminder that the American- and Israeli-led war against Iran that began eight months ago has the potential to do more than raise the price of oil.
