16/11/2006

Soldiers' bodies flown home

The bodies of the four British service personnel killed in an attack on their patrol boat in southern Iraq have been flown back to the UK.

Warrant Officer Lee Hopkins, 35, of the Royal Corps of Signals, Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, from the Intelligence Corps, and two Royal Marines, Corporal Ben Nowak, 27, and Marine Jason Hylton, 33, were killed when an improvised explosive device exploded near their boat, which was on patrol in Shatt Al Arab waterway in Basra on Remembrance Sunday.

Three other military personnel were also seriously injured in the attack, believed to be the first of its kind against a boat carrying British soldiers. An investigation has been launched.

The body of 19-year-old Jamie Hancock, who served in the King's Regiment, was also brought home on the same flight. He was killed during an attack at a coalition base in Basra, where he was on sentry duty, on November 6.

The bodies were flown to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

(KMcA)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

13 November 2006
Four patrol boat crew killed on Iraq waterway
An investigation is underway to try to discover how an improvised bomb attack killed four British servicemen in southern Iraq. The attack on a patrol boat on the Shatt Al-Arad waterway near Basra seriously injured three other soldiers.
12 April 2007
Soldiers' bodies flown back to the UK
The bodies of four British soldiers, including two women, who were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Iraq last week have been flown back to the UK. The bodies of Second Lieutenant Joanna Yorke Dyer, 24, Corporal Kris O'Neill, 27, Private Eleanor Dlugosz, 19, and Kingsman Adam James Smith, 19, were flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.
14 November 2006
MoD names patrol boat crew killed in Iraq
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed the names of the four British service personnel killed when their boat was attacked on Sunday on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway in Iraq.
20 July 2010
Afganistan Victims' Bodies Flown Home
The bodies of four British servicemen killed by a rogue Afghan soldier have been repatriated today. Major James Bowman, Lieutenant Neal Turkington and Corporal Arjun Purja Pun, all of 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, were killed at their base in Helmand Province on Monday last week.
28 July 2009
Soldier's Bodies Flown Home From Afghanistan
The bodies of four British soldiers who were killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan earlier this month, are to be flown home today. Rifleman Aminiasi Toge, 26, Corporal Joseph Etchells, 22, Captain Daniel Shepherd, 28, and Guardsman Christopher King, 20, were all killed in Helmand Province.