"The captain of the French plane was sitting next to me," the senior flight attendant said.

French planes dropped 582 laser-guided bombs during the campaign, the ministry has reported, but apparently it nearly ran out of them.

After a race to the airport and a wait for clearance papers, she got on the last flight of the day, aboard a French plane.

"Don't give demerits to this company because they are associated with a French plane."

British and French planes are also said to be based at Dhahran.

British and French planes need to be flown to the region.

Or being shot up by a naval patrol, or a French plane.

The French planes, however, were not up to the enemy aircraft.

French planes made their first attacks inside Iraq today.

I decided, finally, to go by bus and fly back on the French plane.