The British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, came under sustained left-wing criticism in the House of Commons yesterday when he confirmed a change to the rules of engagement for British and UK planes patrolling over Iraq.
With the air conflict over the northern and southern no-fly zones intensifying, Mr Robertson confirmed that the "expanded" rules would permit the targeting of President Saddam Hussein's "command and control systems" rather than just the individual missile sites or fighter planes attacking US or UK aircraft.
Mr Robertson told MPs allied aircrews faced "daily attempts to kill them" and that, since the conclusion of Operation Desert Fox before Christmas, there had been 50 incidents in which they had been "illuminated" by radars or attacked. The Iraqis have reportedly made more than 100 incursions into the no-fly zones in the past 11 weeks. And the Defence Secretary told MPs President Saddam was now using heavy surface-to-surface rockets as improvised anti-aircraft weapons.
A senior defence source explained these were a primitive version of multi-launch rocket systems which fired large numbers of missiles into the air. The source said they not only posed new dangers to British and American aircraft and personnel - but also to ordinary Iraqi citizens as they returned to earth.
But a furious Mr Tam Dalyell MP said more explosives had rained down on Iraq since Operation Desert Fox than during that 72-hour campaign.
And he demanded: "How can the rules of engagement be changed to this extent without a declaration of war?"
Mr Tony Benn MP insisted there was "absolutely no United Nations authority" for the ongoing action, which he said was creating a "legacy of hatred which would probably last for decades". He went on: "This is a state of war and the pilots who are at risk are so because of the decisions of the American and British governments.".
And the Liberal Democrat spokesman, Mr Menzies Campbell, warned Mr Robertson he could not give the government "a blank cheque" for action. "There is a substantial distinction to be drawn between a defensive response to the threat of attack and what is taking place now - namely the systematic destruction of the air defence system of Iraq," he said.
But Mr Robertson was equally insistent that the humanitarian mission to patrol the no-fly zones and protect marsh Arabs and Kurds from Mr Saddam's forces remained. He told the house: "Saddam's latest campaign against coalition aircrew is sustained and direct, and leaves us with a stark choice: to give up and let him do his worst to the Iraqi Kurds in the north, and the Shias in the south, or to act to protect those flying these legitimate humanitarian patrols.".
Reuters adds from Baghdad: Iraq yesterday resumed pumping crude oil to Turkey three days after the pipeline from north Iraq was put out of action by US warplanes.
"After relying on God, our brave fighters in the oil sector . . . were able to repair the damage inflicted by the failing crows of America," an Oil Ministry spokesman said.
Before the raids the pipeline had been exporting about a million barrels a day of crude.
Mr Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, was quoted yesterday as saying he gave the United States the address of President Saddam's mistress for use in a possible attempt to assassinate the Iraqi leader.
In the interview with the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Mr Ritter hinted he gave the same information to Israel, which has reportedly plotted in the past to eliminate Mr Saddam.