Soldiers' coffins flown back to UK

Updated 12.44 Thu Apr 12 2007

Keywords: British soldiers, Iraq, Basra

The bodies of four British soldiers killed in Iraq last week have arrived back in the UK.

Second Lieutenant Joanna Yorke Dyer, Corporal Kris O'Neill, Private Eleanor Dlugosz and Kingsman Adam James Smith all died on April 5 when insurgents struck their patrol vehicle near Basra.

Second Lieutenant Joanna Yorke Dyer, Corporal Kris O'Neill, Private Eleanor Dlugosz and Kingsman Adam James Smith all died on April 5 when insurgents struck their patrol vehicle near Basra

Their coffins, all draped in Union flags, were flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire for a repatriation ceremony. A sunset repatriation ceremony was held in Basra last night.

A Kuwaiti interpreter was also killed in the blast - which left a 3ft deep crater in the road and seriously injured a fifth soldier.

Second Lt Dyer, from Yeovil, Somerset, was at Sandhurst military academy with Prince William, who has described her as a "close friend" and expressed his deep sadness at her death.

They were both commissioned as officers on the same day in December during a parade at the academy attended by the Queen.

She had been serving with the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment when she was killed.

Fellow victim Kingsman Smith, from Liverpool, was in the same regiment, while Cpl O'Neill, who lived in Catterick, and Pte Dlugosz, from Southampton, were both in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Their deaths brought the number of UK service personnel who have died since the hostilities in Iraq to 140, of which 109 died in action.