Hundreds mourn fallen soldiers
Updated on 10 July 2009
Hundreds of mourners have paid their respects as the bodies of five soldiers were repatriated from Afghanistan.
Four of the men died taking part in Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, a major assault against the Taliban in Helmand Province ahead of next month's Afghan elections.
Their bodies, in coffins draped with the Union flag, were flown in to RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, earlier.
Residents, veterans, friends, colleagues and relatives started gathering in nearby Wootton Bassett as the repatriation ceremony took place at the air base.
In what has become a sombre tradition since the bodies of British service personnel started being brought home to RAF Lyneham in 2007, the crowds stood silently as the hearses progressed past on their way to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.
Lance Corporal David Dennis, 29, from Llanelli, South Wales, of the Light Dragoons, and Private Robert Laws, 18, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, of 2nd Battalion the Mercian Regiment, died in separate incidents in Helmand on Saturday.
Lance Corporal Dean Elson, 22, originally from Zimbabwe but living in Bridgend, South Wales, of the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards, was killed in an explosion on Sunday.
Captain Ben Babington-Browne, 27, from Maidstone, Kent, of 22 Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, died in a helicopter crash in Zabul on Monday.
Trooper 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.
Ten British soldiers have died in ten days in southern Afghanistan, taking the number of UK troops killed since the start of operations in October 2001 to 179.
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