Three British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan are to be returned to the UK.
Lance Corporal David Kirkness, 24, and Rifleman James Brown, 18, both of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, died when two suicide bombers on a motorbike blew themselves up outside Sangin in Helmand Province on December 15.
They were hailed as heroes for preventing mass carnage in a bazaar packed with Afghan civilians.
Corporal Simon Hornby, 29, of 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was killed by an improvised explosive device while on a foot patrol in the Nad-e-Ali area of Helmand on Saturday.
The soldiers' bodies will be flown into RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.
After a private ceremony for their families, a hearse carrying their Union Jack-draped coffins will pass along the high street of nearby Wootton Bassett. The market town has become the focus for the nation's mourning of the deaths of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Crowds have appeared along the route to pay their respects since the bodies of British service personnel began being brought home through RAF Lyneham in April 2007.
L/Cpl Kirkness, from Morley, near Leeds, and Rfn Brown, from Orpington, Kent, died manning a vehicle checkpoint on the road into Sangin. Two suicide bombers on a motorbike drove into the checkpoint and detonated their devices, killing the British servicemen and two Afghan soldiers working with them.
The Ministry of Defence said it was thought the bombers were trying to get into Sangin's bazaar to launch an attack.
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Kitson, commanding officer of 3 Rifles Battle Group, said the British soldiers' comrades took comfort and pride from the fact that the soldiers averted a "much larger tragedy".
Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jebhBldk0adZwVy-ewcFLv9JILXw
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