20 YEARS OF PAIN - ANNIVERSARY OF WAR BRINGS MORE ANGUISH FOR FAMILIES

Scots mothers who lost their sons in Iraq blame ex-PM Blair for their deaths

- MARK MCGIVERN

THE MUMS of heroic Scots soldiers who were killed in Iraq have vowed they will never forgive former PM Tony Blair on the 20th anniversary of the Gulf War.

Christine Morgan, Margaret Valentine and Rose Gentle continue to grieve for their sons who were lost in the conflict, which began with the Allied invasion of Iraq on March 20 2003.

They continue to claim that the then prime minister went to war on fake intelligence and without public support for the conflict.

Twenty years on from the "shock and awe" blitz of Baghdad, the mothers have all watched on as their sons' friends have grown up and built families and careers. And they have wondered on the lives their beloved boys were denied.

Christine Morgan's son Marc Ferns was just 21 when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra in August, 2004.

After his death Christine, from Glenrothes, urged Blair to bring British troops, who were meant to be a peacekeeping force, home.

She said: "I do think that Tony Blair made decisions based on nonsense and he misled us all about what was happening.

"He didn't have a son or daughter to send to war and he didn't think about the devastation it would cause to families like ours.

"I wasn't very happy when he got a knighthood because of the decisions he made. Brave Marc was the third generation of his family to serve in the Black Watch and died during his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Before he even headed off to Iraq, Marc spoke to the Record about his proud family tradition, saying: "I couldn't look my Ma and Pa in the eye if I didn't do my duty. We all think about our family at a time like this."