Body of soldier flown back to UK

L/Cpl Brady lived in Barrow with his wife, Zoe

The body of a 37-year-old British soldier killed in an attack on his base in Iraq has arrived back to the UK.

The coffin bearing the body of Lance Corporal Dennis Brady, from Barrow, Cumbria, arrived at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Sunday evening.

Draped in the Union flag, the coffin was carried by colleagues from 1st Battalion the Light Infantry.

The reservist medic, was killed by mortar rounds in northern Basra a week ago. He leaves a wife, Zoe.

He died in what the Ministry of Defence (MoD) called an "indirect fire attack".

L/Cpl Brady had also served in Afghanistan

His mother, Brenda, 72, has said he was killed two weeks before his six month tour of Iraq was due to end.

L/Cpl Brady had served in Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan, with the Royal Gurkha Rifles and was in Iraq during the beginning of the conflict in 2003.

He left the regular army in 2004 and after some time in the Fire Service volunteered to return to the military, deploying to Afghanistan with the Royal Gurkha Rifles, then a few months later to Iraq with the Light Infantry.

His commanding officer said the battalion had lost a "real friend".

The British military death toll in Iraq since March 2003 is now 119 - 90 of which were as a result of hostile action, according to the MoD.