Soldier killed in Iraq was reconstruction expert

The British officer killed in a bomb attack in Iraq on Thursday has been named as Captain David Martyn Jones of 1st Battalion, the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.

Capt Jones, 29, was travelling in an ambulance to have stitches removed when the bomb was detonated near Basra. Two other soldiers in the vehicle suffered shrapnel wounds.

The captain, from Louth in Lincolnshire, was the first British soldier to die in combat since 24 June, when six Royal Military Police were killed as a crowd surrounded a police station at Majar al-Kabir.

Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Mendonca, commanding officer of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, said: "Dai Jones was a courageous, warm-hearted and very popular officer who will be sorely missed.'' Capt Jones's wife, Isobel, said: "I am extremely proud of Dai. He was a wonderful husband who served his country with great courage."

The Ministry of Defence said Capt Jones specialised in civil-military co-operation as part of the project to rebuild Iraq.