UK soldier killed in Iraq named
11.15, Tue Sep 5 2006
One of the two British soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq has been named.
Stephen Wright, 20, was in a patrol that was attacked outside Ad Dayr, near Basra, on Monday afternoon.
Mr Wright, from Leyland, Lancashire, was sent to Iraq in April this year - a month before his 20th birthday.
Two other soldiers were injured in the attack, one seriously, and were taken to the Shaibah Logistics Base by helicopter for emergency medical treatment.
Mr Wright was named by his father, Stephen, 45, as one of the two soldiers killed. The Ministry of Defence has yet to confirm the names of the dead men and no information on his rank was immediately available.
Officials from the MoD went to the family home in Leyland late last night to tell his father of his death. His mother died a number of years ago.
The former Wellfield High School pupil, a member of the Royal Artillery, was travelling in a Land Rover to the border from the Shaibah base when the bomb exploded, killing Mr Wright and another man at about 1pm.
Mr Wright was a member of the Leyland Cadets all through his high school career, eventually being made Lance Corporal.
He joined the Army almost as soon as he left school and did six months' training with the Royal Artillery in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, before being posted to Sennelager in Germany.
His death comes in one of the bloodiest weeks suffered by the British military since the war in Iraq began.