Royal Air Force officers stationed in Kuwait were infuriated by French ' games and mischief', over British and United States active policy in patrolling the - No-Fly-Zone over Iraq, according to RAF sources. The French claimed that they were not consulted before British and American aircraft go on missions over the no fly zone including the action taken against  Iraqi communication command centres 11 days ago.

The sources, who spoke on strictly ' off the record' condition, said that people on the operational level down here in the Gulf were totally amazed by French allegations. It is no secrete here that RAF pilots, who are very highly regarded by both Kuwaiti politicians and servicemen, have been ' extremely annoyed,' by the French Airforce who supposed to be their allies. There were also hints that the French allies were not to be totally trusted to stop such details from reaching the Iraqis.

The French have a squadron of fighter bombers stationed in Northern Saudi Arabia, but withdrew from the no-fly-zone patrol three years ago leaving Britain and the United States to carry out the Mission of protecting the Shia the South and the Kurds in the North despite being party to setting up the no-fly-zone in the first place. ' They are still part of the coalition force,' an RAF source told the Express, ' and we still brief them before every single mission according to the rules of operations which have not changed even though they have stopped flying with us.'

Following wide international criticism of the Anglo-American raid on Iraqi installations 10 days ago, the French angrily said they didn't know about the operation. Then they changed that in a statement saying they were ' informed but not consulted,' giving the impression that they would have not given their consent, which seems to anger RAF personnel stationed in the Gulf.

' They usually are - and were - briefed before every single mission,' an RAF source said, ' and they were also briefed about how many times our planes came under fire or threatened by Iraqi air defences.'  But the sources declined to specify whether the French were briefed before the 16 February raids or not. The RAF have reported some such 22 incidents last month alone, they have also confirmed that the French ' allies' knew that Saddam Hussein has upgraded and developed his air defences and radar systems with the Help of Serbian experts since last October.

Following German and French criticism 10 days ago, the Foreign office, in a typically vague statement said that the European allies were informed but not consulted. That gave the impression that there was some fear that operational details might be leaked to the Iraqis if were given early to the French. 

The no-fly-zone were first established in the North - north of 33 parallel - in 1991 by Britain, US and France to protect the Kurds in the North and a year later was imposed in the South - south of 32 Parallel - to protect the Shia in the south who were massacred by Saddam's Republican Guards after the Gulf war.