Iraq war's Indian victim cremated

By Asit Jolly
BBC correspondent in Chandigarh

Sergeant Singh was accorded full battle honours

A funeral has been held for a US army soldier from India who was killed while on patrol in Habbaniya, Iraq.

The US army's Lieutenant General James Campbell led tributes to Sergeant Uday Singh as his body was cremated in his home-town of Chandigarh, north India.

The 21-year-old - who, relatives say, had hoped for US citizenship - is the first Indian killed in combat in Iraq.

Earlier this year, India's Government rejected a US request for peacekeeping troops to be sent to Iraq.

Sergeant Singh was posthumously awarded top gallantry awards - the Bronze Star and the US army's oldest accolade, the Purple Heart medal.

A contingent of US soldiers attended the funeral, and were joined by buglers from the Indian army's Gurkha regiment.

Lieutenant General Campbell, who heads the US army's Pacific Command, spoke of Sergeant Singh as a "brother in arms and a true Indian".

Describing him as a hero, he said Sergeant Singh was and always would be an American soldier.

Flag and medals

The military honours were preceded by a religious ceremony, in which Sikh prayers were read out.

Uday Singh's parents were given medals and an American flag

The dead soldier's father, former Indian army officer Lieutenant Colonel Preet Mohinder Singh, his mother and his sister, wept as his body was consigned to the flames, according to ancient Sikh ritual.

Uday Singh's parents were later given a US flag and replicas of their son's medal by Lieutenant General Campbell.

Sergeant Singh was killed on 1 December when his patrol was ambushed by suspected insurgents in the town of Habbaniya, west of Baghdad.

India's Government has said it will not send its troops to support US forces in Iraq until there is an international consensus on the future of the war-torn, oil-rich state.