UK aircraft leave Saudi bases

By Jonathan Marcus BBC Defence Correspondent

Britain has withdrawn all of its combat aircraft from Saudi Arabia as part of a fundamental reassessment of its deployments in the region.

According to defence sources this happened last month well before the recent suicide bombings in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The RAF had 14 Tornado F3s in Saudi during the latest conflict

The UK and US has based aircraft in Saudi Arabia to enforce the no-fly zone over southern Iraq for more than a decade.

Late last month, with great political fanfare, the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that the US military would largely be ending its permanent presence in Saudi Arabia.

By the end of this summer some 7,000 - mainly US Air Force personnel - will have left the kingdom.

But with far less publicity the British Government had already taken the same decision.

Royal Air Force Tornado fighters that had been based in Saudi Arabia were already home.

Political factors

Some support aircraft remain in the country.

But their numbers are much reduced and it is quite possible that in due course the RAF presence will end altogether.

This peaked during the Iraq war at some 14 Tornado F3's, along with seven VC-10 tankers, four Awacs command aircraft, four Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, and one of the signals-gathering versions of the same plane.

The Western military presence causes unease among many Saudis

The mission of these aircraft is over.

Saddam Hussein's regime has been toppled and the controversial no-fly zones are now part of history.

But the British pull-out - just like the US withdrawal - is influenced by political factors as well.

It has long been realised that the Western military presence in Saudi Arabia causes unease among many Saudis and problems for the government there.

It is one factor contributing to the upsurge of extremist cells like those responsible for the recent bombings.

But sources in London stress that Britain's interest in the security of the Gulf remains undiminished.

There will be regular deployments and exercises in the region but these will be essentially temporary - a demonstration of Britain's ability to move swiftly to the Gulf if the security of any of its allies there is threatened in the future.