Brave soldiers return home from Afghanistan

A company of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment has returned home from one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan.

Some 90 members of the regiment returned to Pirbright barracks in Surrey following a six-month tour of Musa Qala in which they encountered "pretty tenacious resistance" from insurgents, according to Major Stuart Smith.

The tour was the second time that the 1st battalion had been deployed to Afghanistan.

They will be joined in Surrey next week by D company, which operated in Nar-e Saraj alongside Danish troops, the London Evening Standard reported.

Major Smith explained that the role of his troops changed halfway through the tour.

He told the newspaper: "Up until Christmas, about 90 per cent of our time was spent on reassurance, with occasional contacts with insurgents."

"The next couple of months it was all about dominating the ground and making sure our footprint was stamped hard."

Last week, Brigadier James Cowan told the Daily Star that the Taliban may make false claims that forces have burned copies of the Koran to cause outrage in Muslims.