THE bodies of four British military personnel killed by a makeshift bomb on a patrol boat in Iraq on Remembrance Sunday have arrived back in Britain.

The four, together with the body of a fifth soldier killed earlier this month in Basra, were flown into RAF Brize Norton for a private repatriation ceremony attended by families and loved ones.

As the five coffins were returned home, an Iraqi minister said there was "no effective government" in the country which, according to him, is in anarchy.

Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, from Ipswich, of the Army's Intelligence Corps, was among the four killed on Sunday when a device attached to a jetty exploded near their boat on the Shatt al-Arab waterway in Basra.

She is the second British woman to die in action in Iraq since the conflict began.

Also killed were Warrant Officer Class 2 Lee Hopkins, 35, of the Royal Signals, and two Royal Marines, Corporal Ben Nowak and Marine Jason Hylton.

Cpl Nowak, 27, lived in Liverpool and served with 45 Commando, but was attached to 539 Assault Squadron.

Marine Hylton, 33, lived with his parents in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, and was from 539 Assault Squadron.

Three other service personnel were seriously injured in the attack, which brought the British death toll in Iraq since 2003 to 125.

The body of Kingsman Jamie Hancock, who was killed by small arms fire in Basra on November 7, was also on today's flight.

The 19-year-old from Wigan was on sentry duty at a Coalition Forces base in central Basra City when he was shot.

The service was held at the rain-lashed airbase at 9am yesterday. Family members looked on as the five coffins, draped in union flags, were taken out of a C17 aircraft to the sound of a military band, an RAF spokesman said.