3:51pm UK, Wednesday April 23, 2003

The bodies of two British soldiers feared to have been executed in southern Iraq will be flown back to Britain on Friday.

Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, 36, and 24-year-old Sapper Luke Allsopp will arrive at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at midday.

180 executed soldiers allsopp and cullingworth.jpg

Coming home: Allsopp and Cullingworth

Funeral arrangements will be made once the pair are officially repatriated.

Their remains were found near Al Zubayr, outside Basra, at the weekend. They had gone missing on March 23.

It is thought their Land Rover was ambushed by Iraqi forces.

Footage from the scene was broadcast on Arab TV station al Jazeera, causing outrage in Britain.

An MoD spokeswoman said the cause of deaths had not been confirmed but execution was a possibility.

Sapper Allsopp, from north London, and Sgt Cullingworth, from Essex, were members of the 33 (EOD) Engineer Regiment, a specialist bomb disposal unit of the Royal Engineers.