The bodies of four British soldiers recently killed in Iraq were flown back to Britain on Monday for burial.

The transport plane carrying the men's bodies landed at Royal Air Force (RAF) Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, mid-England, where their families were waiting for their return.

Three of the men were Royal Military Police killed in an ambush in Basra, a southern Iraqi city where most British troops in that country are based.

Major Matthew Titchener and Warrant Officer Colin Wall, who were originally based at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire, along with Corporal Dewi Pritchard, died after gunmen in a pickup truck opened fire and threw a grenade at their car.

The fourth was Fusilier Russell Beeston from Govan, Glasgow, who died when his patrol was attacked by a crowd with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades near Basra.

The killings, which brought to 11 the number of British soldiers killed in Iraq since Washington declared major military combat in Iraq was over on May 1, came after a string of attacks on British soldiers this month, and two days of rioting in Basra over power and fuel shortages.

Since the United States-led war against Iraq began on March 20, about 50 British servicemen have died in the country.

An opinion poll published Monday by the Daily Mirror newspaper here found that nearly a third of Britons favor withdrawing troops from Iraq swiftly because of the rising death toll among British forces there.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2003)