With British troops poised to enter the conflict in Afghanistan, a Hendon shopkeeper this week spoke of his pride in his RAF flying officer son.

Rudi Danso used to have his son Kofi help serve his customers at the Hendon Health Food Shop in Brent Street. Now Kofi, 30, is thousands of miles away in the Persian Gulf with 1 Squadron RAF Regiment from RAF St Mawgan, among 22,000 British troops in Oman for training exercise Saif Sareea II.

Mr Danso said: "All my customers know him he used to work in the shop on Saturdays."

Some of the troops on Saif Sareea II are already on standby to fight in Afghanistan. But Mr Danso says he is not worried for his son.

"He joined the forces and one day he'll have to go to war," he said. "When that time comes he will just go. This is what he has wanted to do since he was 16 it is his dream."

Kofi became an air cadet while at Edgware Secondary School in Green Lane, Edgware. He graduated from the RAF's training college in Cranwell in 1997. Before being called to Oman he was stationed at RAF Honington in Suffolk.

Kofi was among troops visited by Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier this month, and has told his father morale in Oman remains high.

"He phones every week. He said it was hot 45 degrees centigrade, the food is fantastic and morale is good," Mr Danso said.

The exercise, which was due to finish on Friday, included Omani troops to provide experience of a large-scale military deployment in arduous conditions something British troops may have to experience for real in an imminent ground war in Afghanistan.

Kofi, who serves as a squadron adjutant and command post officer, is likely to be coming home in December if he is not called up to serve in Afghanistan.

October 31, 2001 17:57