Funeral held for Iraq serviceman

Lance Corporal Darren Flowers was buried with full military honours

A soldier from Londonderry who was killed in Iraq almost two weeks ago has been buried with full military honours.

Darren Flowers, 25, was from the city's Waterside area but was buried on Thursday in Portstewart, where he had lived with his grandparents.

The Lance Corporal was working in a vehicle park in a military base in Basra when it was hit by shrapnel.

Friends and colleagues formed a guard of honour as his coffin was carried into the church by family members.

Reverend Richard Gregg said that while mourning a son and grandson, the congregation would also be celebrating a wonderful life cut tragically short.

Resigned

L/Cpl Flowers was killed last month while on attachment to 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.

He had already resigned from the Army by the time he arrived in Iraq.

The gap that Darren has left in the family can never be replaced and he will never be forgotten Family statement

He served with the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers before his attachment.

The Ministry of Defence said he was working on a vehicle when a rocket or mortar hit the Army's Basra Palace base.

In a statement on Thursday, his family said the past two weeks had been the hardest and most painful.

"Darren, or Daz to his friends, was someone who was always full of life and energy. In many ways, he was like any young man and to the family he was unique," they said.

"His officers in the Army have nothing but praise for him and his commitment to the job he loved, while his work colleagues remember him as someone who would never leave a job undone or a colleague working late alone.

"The gap that Darren has left in the family can never be replaced and he will never be forgotten. For those who knew him and loved him it was a great pleasure to have shared part of his short life with him."