 Blackpool Today -- Gunner Lee Thornton, from Marton, was part of a 20-strong patrol training Iraqi troops north of Basra, when he came under attack.
The 22-year-old suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
Gunner Thornton was airlifted to a British army base in Germany following last Tuesday's attack. He died two days later surrounded by his family.
Speaking to The Gazette from Basra, Captain Laurence Roche, spokesman for the 20th artillery battery, said the body of the former Palatine High school pupil was due to be flown back to the UK in the next week.
He added the soldiers serving in the 58 (Eyres) Battery, 12th Regiment Royal Artillery, who had been involved in the fatal ambush were coping "remarkably well under the circumstances".
Cpt Roche said: "Gunner Thornton had volunteered to go on the patrol the day after two of his colleagues were killed in another ambush. He was that kind of soldier.
"He was shot and very seriously wounded so a helicopter was scrambled to pick him up. He was air-lifted to Germany where he sadly died.
"Lee was part of a patrol who were teaching Iraqi soldiers how to handle a number of situations before the area is handed over to the country in the next few months."
The Battery was part of a unit patrolling three areas around Basra and currently being protected by the Danish Army. It is the only UK garrison helping the Danes in protecting Iraqi civilians living in and around Basra.
Cpt Roche added: "Lee's colleagues in the Battery are coping remarkably well after losing three soldiers in the space of a week. I went to visit them over the weekend and they are all well. They understand why they are there and that they have a job to do."
Just 24 hours before Lee was shot, two other soldiers from 58 Battery were killed when their Land Rover was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
Gunners Samuela Vanua, 27, originally from Fiji, and Stephen Wright, 20, from Leyland, died in the attack near the town of Ad Dayr, north of Iraq's second city.
John McNaughton, headteacher at Palatine High, said: "Lee was an excellent young man, courteous and a total credit to the school.
"The whole school community is in shock and saddened by his death. He used to return to the school in his Army uniform on many occasions and see his former teachers.
"His two younger brothers are still studying at Palatine and he has many friends here still. It's a sad loss to the local community – Lee is a credit to the town." |
