Defence Secretary George Robertson yesterday expressed his pride in 12 Squadron from RAF Lossiemouth for the key role they played in the Desert Fox bombing of Iraq, writes Graeme Smith.
And he warned that if Saddam Hussein did not learn from the lesson they would be prepared to use force again.
Mr Robertson said both he and the Prime Minister, who will visit RAF Lossiemouth soon, had lived every moment of the bombing raids, as had the families of the aircrew.
He said: ''Saddam's Hussein's war machine has been badly damaged and international law and order and stability is more secure than it was when 12 Squadron left RAF Lossiemouth for Kuwait.''
He went on: ''This is a family day. One of the wives told me it was 1655 hours since they had left Lossiemouth and I know they are all delighted their loved ones are home safe and sound.''
In a television interview later, Mr Robertson warned that Britain and the US would take ''decisive action'' if Iraqi forces continued to flout the no-fly zones over the country.
He warned Saddam Hussein: ''We are not going to put up with it.''
He spoke out after a US fighter pilot fired a missile at an Iraq air-defence base when radar locked on to his jet, prompting fears of an attack.
It was not clear whether the American missile hit its target, but Washington said the aircraft returned safely to its base in southern Turkey.
The clash is the latest in a series of confrontations over the no-fly zones, set up after the end of the Gulf War in 1991 to stop Saddam threatening rebel Kurds and marsh Arabs.
British Tornado and Jaguar jets help police the zones from bases in Turkey and Kuwait, and were flying yesterday, but the Ministry of Defence said they were not involved in the incident.
Mr Robertson said the no-fly zones had been established ''for humanitarian reasons, they're there to protect people who have already been attacked by Saddam's forces''. And he insisted: ''We have said we will take decisive action. We intend to maintain these patrols.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article