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LONDON - The bodies of four British soldiers killed in Iraq last week were flown back home today.
The two men and two women, along with a civilian interpreter, died after a roadside bomb struck their Warrior armoured vehicle in Basra as they returned from a routine patrol.
The bomb blast left a crater several metres across and a metre deep in the road.
The victims were Second Lieutenant Joanna Yorke Dyer, a friend of Prince William; Corporal Kris O'Neill; Private Eleanor Dlugsoz and Kingsman Adam James Smith.
Their coffins, draped in Union Jack flags, were carried off a military aircraft during a sombre ceremony at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.
In total, six British soldiers were killed in Iraq last week, making it one of the deadliest for British forces since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Since the war began, 140 British soldiers have been killed.
- REUTERS