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Tears for latest Afghan victims

Nicholas Cecil, Deputy Political Editor
27 Aug 2009


The families of two soldiers killed in Afghanistan paid tribute to them today as their bodies were returned to Britain for burial.

Thirty relatives and friends of 18-year-old Private Johnathon Young, of 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, wore T-shirts bearing his name as they watched his coffin being driven through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire.

Serjeant Paul McAleese, 29, of 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was killed by a bomb as he tried to save Pte Young. They were the 205th and 206th British deaths in the conflict.

Sjt McAleese's father, John, was the SAS soldier who led the raid on the Iranian embassy in London in 1980. He collapsed in tears as his son's body was repatriated.

As the coffins came home, the 200th victim was buried. Pte Jason Williams, 23, from Worcester, of the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment, was killed on 8 August.

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