16 seconds ago 2009-12-06T05:00:03-08:00
LONDON (AFP) – The bodies of six British soldiers, including five who were shot dead by a "rogue" policeman in Afghanistan, were on Tuesday flown home to be buried.
The coffins of Warrant Officer Darren Chant, Guardsman Jimmy Major and Sergeant Matthew Telford of the Grenadier Guards were flown back to RAF Lyneham alongside those of Corporal Steven Boote and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith.
All five were killed last Tuesday when an Afghan policeman turned his weapon on them in the southern Helmand province before fleeing.
The body of Sergeant Phillip Scott, who was killed by an improvised explosive in Helmand last Thursday, was also flown home.
Later on Tuesday, a funeral cortège carrying the soldiers' remains is expected to drive through the nearby town of Wootton Bassett.
Crowds of family members, friends, war veterans and members of the public are expected to line the streets of this small Wiltshire town in a mark of silent respect for the troops, in what has become an all too familiar ritual.
With close to a hundred British soldiers killed in active service this year -- the vast majority in 93 in Afghanistan -- 2009 has been the bloodiest year for Britain's armed forces the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.
Brown has faced persistent questions over the scope and purpose of the British role in Afghanistan and whether troops were well-enough equipped.
Britain has around 9,000 troops based in troubled Helmand province, where they are battling Taliban insurgents. Brown has conditionally pledged another 500 troops for the mission.
