ROYAL Air Force Tornadoes took off for the Gulf before dawn to protect Iraq's marsh Arabs from persecution from Saddam Hussein.
The jets, which left RAF Marham in Norfolk in two waves, were Britain's contribution to an allied effort to stop Iraqi air strikes against the Shi'ites in the south.
The Iraqi president had threatened to ignore the "no-fly" zone the allies were setting up.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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