Four US B-1 bombers have landed at an RAF base in Britain to carry out “specific defensive operations” to stop Iran firing missiles into the Middle East.

Axar.az reports, citing The Guardian, the B-1 Lancers arrived at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, one on Friday evening and three on Saturday morning, after Keir Starmer had granted permission for “defensive” US action against Iranian missile sites from UK bases.

The deployment comes days after Washington warned that strikes on Iran would “surge dramatically”.

The UK’s armed forces chief, Richard Knighton, said he expected the US to launch missions from the Gloucestershire base “within the next few days”. The prime minister agreed on Sunday to allow the US to strike Iran defensively from Fairford and from Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.