The front pages of newspapers across Britain were plastered on Monday with the same grainy photograph, one showing five men, their faces blurred, being detained by police in the village of Whelford, England, who were investigating a possible terrorist plot. By Monday, armed officers were monitoring roadblocks on the country roads leading to the sprawling military base that has been used since spring for U.S. operations related to the war in Iran.

More than a day after the police arrested the men, Whelford remained cordoned off after dozens of people had been evacuated from their homes. The men were released on bail on Monday afternoon, an unexpected development that injected confusion and raised questions into what was going on. The police said they were still investigating.

The village is one of three localities that butt up against R.A.F. Fairford, a British base in a quiet corner of southern England. The villages of Whelford and Kempsford and the town of Fairford sit in a triangle around the base. Fairford's residents have had a front-row seat to the U.S. bombers that have been flying in and out with renewed frequency since the start of the war with Iran this year.

Helen Cheese-Probert, whose thatched-roof home is a short walk from the base in Kempsford, said she was woken up Sunday morning by numerous calls from friends and family asking if she was all right. "If you buy a house near an air base, you expect planes. But no one expected this," she said. About 85 households had to be evacuated quickly. On Monday evening, the residents were allowed to return to their home, but the cordon around the village remained.