Britain: Calls for a public inquiry in the UK into Gulf War Syndrome were gathering pace last night after a landmark ruling found a link between one of the main symptoms of the illness and injections given to soldiers.
Mr Alex Izett, a former Lance Cpl with the Royal Engineers, finally won his 10-year battle for recognition when a War Pensions Appeals Tribunal agreed that the injections caused him to develop osteoporosis.
A similar ruling involving another serviceman, Mr Shaun Rusling, the chairman of the Gulf War Veterans Association, was challenged by the Ministry of Defence and he is currently awaiting a Court of Appeal judgment.
However, the MoD has decided not to appeal against Mr Izett's victory.
Mr Izett (33), who has suffered from the brittle bone disease for the last eight years, described the decision as a "watershed" for all veterans of the first Gulf conflict who claim they were made ill by the injections.
The father-of-two never actually went to the Gulf although he received the same injections - some designed to counter a biological warfare attack - linked by critics to illness among some veterans.
It is his absence from the theatre of war, the inoculations he received and his subsequent slide into ill-health that experts claim provides crucial evidence linking the latter two.
Last night, campaigners claimed that the Ministry of Defence's decision not to appeal against the ruling could have significant implications for hundreds of veterans.
Defence minister, Mr Lewis Moonie, insisted that there was still no proof that vaccinations were to blame for veterans' ill-health. - (PA)