We're still ready for war Blair warns Saddam

IRAQ faces another bomb blitz if it steps up its threat to the Gulf, Tony Blair warned yesterday.

Dictator Saddam Hussein is threatening revenge for last month's allied air raids. His government yesterday vowed to hit back against any missile or air strikes launched from neighbouring countries.

The move put British forces in the firing line as the Prime Minister delivered the tough new ultimatum at an RAF base just 35 miles from the Iraqi border. At the same time, a Royal Navy aircraft carrier was on its way to play a key role in beefing up allied firepower in the Gulf. HMS Invincible will carry a squadron of Royal Navy Sea Harrier jets and could act as a floating platform for any further air strikes on Iraq.

Mr Blair was in Kuwait to meet pilots and ground crew of 2 Squadron at the desert base of Ali al-Salem.

Standing in front of a Tornado GR1 jet fighter, he said: "We have heard all these threats from Saddam before.

"Any attempt to engage in any reprisals against anybody will be met with an immediate and very firm response.

"The only way of dealing with Saddam is to make it clear that if he tries to endanger anybody in his neighbourhood he will be beaten back by force.

"He has to realise we are not going to let him threaten the region without taking action."

Praising the bravery of RAF pilots in Kuwait, Mr Blair went on: "We are tremendously proud of the work that our forces do here.

"But we have them here for a very specific reason and they will remain as long as Saddam remains a threat to the region."

Tornadoes from Ali al-Salem help to enforce the no-fly zone imposed over southern Iraq after the Gulf War. Saddam has threatened to shoot them down and some US planes have already been attacked.

Mr Blair has ordered reinforcements to the Gulf to keep up pressure on Saddam to end the deadly germ warfare programme UN inspectors had been trying to halt when Saddam expelled them. The move provoked the last round of air strikes, codenamed Operation Desert Fox.

During a two-hour tour of the RAF base yesterday, Mr Blair climbed into the cockpit of a Tornado like the ones that bombed Iraq.

He and his wife Cherie chatted to some of the 400 servicemen and women on standby in Kuwait - including a sniper disguised by his desert camouflage.

Corporal Robert Cooke, from Stoke-on- Trent, greeted them in a helmet covered in straw.

He said later: "Mrs Blair clearly thought I was a fashion victim. She said my headgear reminded her of a barrister's wig."

The flying visit to Kuwait on the way back from South Africa was Mr Blair's first chance to thank the RAF for its work in Desert Fox.

He also spent several hours in talks with the Emir of Kuwait.

Meanwhile, as HMS Invincible sailed from Portsmouth yesterday, armed forces minister Doug Henderson said: "The Prime Minister made it clear at the end of Desert Fox that we were not going to relax our watch on Saddam.

"This is the clearest possible signal that we remain ready to use force again if need be."

l A British oil worker has been kidnapped in the Yemen, it was revealed last night - only days after three Britons were massacred there by Islamic extremists.

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