COALITION forces feel vindicated by scenes of jubilation in Baghdad at the fall of Saddam Hussein, according to a Ledbury serviceman.

Flight Lieutenant Stuart Naylor is currently serving as an engineer with No 12 (Bomber) Squadron in the Gulf, helping to keep RAF Tornado GR4s operational.

Speaking to the Ledbury Reporter from his camp in the desert, he said there was great satisfaction in scenes which followed the fall of Baghdad.

"I think morale now is very good, obviously people were concerned when the initial part of the war was going on and public opinion was very divided but people feel very vindicated to see the Iraqi people liberated from a repressive regime," he said.

Flt Lt Naylor served in the first Gulf War and has intermittedly returned to the Gulf, to Kuwait, when the RAF patrolled the southern no-fly zone.

Now 36, the former John Kyrle High School pupil, whose parents still live in Ledbury, joined up at 18 and would normally be stationed at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.

He was given permission to join his squadron late as he and his wife Vanessa awaited the arrival of their first child, a boy, Alexander in February.

He said leaving for war had created a conflict of its own: "It's very mixed feelings for me, it's a job I have trained to do for many years. I have felt very rewarded in the work I am doing but there is a feeling I would like to get home."

Sandstorms, a desert camp, 12 hour day shifts and sleep at night shattered by constant take-offs have made it hard work for crews.

Despite this they have been incredibly well informed about events, he said.

"I think in the modern communications era you can't get away from it. We are on a coalition base run by the Americans, they have put in an internet computer network for us with broadband.

"If you are not sat down to lunch with a huge television telling you what's going on, someone's got a PC on with the BBC news."

He added that it was strange operationally to know so much information: "You launch aircraft and you know what's happened straight away because you see it on the news."