In bombing raid perhaps, fail to wipe out southern end of Scottish island (7)
I believe the answer is:
mission
'in bombing raid' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'fail to wipe out southern end of scottish island' is the wordplay.
'fail' becomes 'miss' (missing is a kind of failing).
'to wipe out southern end of' means to remove the last letter (in a down clue, the bottom letter is removed).
'scottish island' becomes 'iona' (island of the Hebrides).
'iona' with its final letter taken away is 'ion'.
'miss'+'ion'='MISSION'
'perhaps' is the link.
(Other definitions for mission that I've seen before include "1996 Tom Cruise spy film -- extremely dangerous assignment" , "religious establishment" , "Journey with a specific purpose" , "Delegation" , "Task assigned to be done" .)