Town honours Afghan war victims

The bodies of five British soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan have been flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

Hearses carrying their coffins have been passing through nearby Wootton Bassett after a repatriation ceremony was held at the base.

Townspeople have been paying tribute to servicemen and women who have died since 2007, when it was decided Lyneham would handle repatriations.

The procession then continues to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

The repatriation ceremony at RAF Lyneham was held at 1100 BST, with the procession then passing through Wootton Bassett at 1400 BST.

Helicopter crash

The five men were all killed in the past week.

L/Cpl David Dennis, 29, from Llanelli in south Wales, of the Light Dragoons, and Pte Robert Laws, 18, from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, of 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment, died in separate incidents in Helmand on Saturday.

L/Cpl Dane Elson, 22, who was born in Zimbabwe but had moved to Bridgend in south Wales, of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards was killed in an explosion on Sunday.

Cpt Ben Babington-Browne, 27, from Maidstone in Kent, of 22 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, died in a helicopter crash in Zabul Province on Monday.

Pte Christopher Whiteside, 20, from Blackpool, of The Light Dragoons, died in a blast caused by an improvised explosive device near Gereshk in Helmand on Tuesday.

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