Britain pays respects as soldiers' bodies flown home

WOOTTON BASSETT (AFP) – The bodies of six British troops killed in Afghanistan were flown home Tuesday, as Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised to a dead soldier's mother for a botched condolence letter.

The coffins of five men shot dead last week by an Afghan policeman they were training were flown to the RAF Lyneham airbase in southwest England, along with the body of a soldier blown up by a roadside bomb two days later.

After a private ceremony for their families, hearses carrying their Union flag-draped coffins were to pass through the small nearby town of Wootton Bassett watched by hundreds of mourners and those wanting to pay their respects.

In London, Brown paid tribute to all the servicemen who have died in Afghanistan, and said he had apologised to Jacqui Janes, who had complained that his handwritten letter of condolence was strewn with errors.

He said he told Janes, whose 20-year-old son Jamie died in Afghanistan last month, he was sorry "for any mistakes that had been made" in the letter in which he appears to have made an error in her son's name.

Brown added: "I also said to anybody whom I have written to, if my writing is difficult to read, I apologise for that." Aides have described Brown's handwriting as "unique" and said it was hindered by his eyesight -- he lost the use of one eye as a youth.

Janes told the Sun that in her telephone conversation with Brown, she had claimed her son bled to death from his wounds because of a shortage of helicopters. He replied he was doing everything he could for the troops.

In his monthly press conference, Brown insisted the Afghanistan mission remained crucial, and there was a "plan to move things forward".

Britain has lost 95 soldiers in Afghanistan this year, the highest casualty levels since the 1982 Falklands War, and a total of 232 have died since the 2001 invasion of the country.

The deaths of the five men in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand at the hands of a man they were working alongside has shaken confidence in what the government says is the crucial work of training Afghan security forces to operate alone.

The latest poll revealed that 64 percent of the public think the war is "unwinnable", up six points from July, and 63 percent think the 9,000 British troops should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

In Wootton Bassett, which has seen many repatriations since 2007, many mourners waiting in the steady rain for the coffins to come past said the losses were becoming unbearable.

"I am totally opposed to the war. It is a waste of life," said John Facer, 76, who has attended several repatriation ceremonies. "The least we can do is pay our respects."