Coming home after five months in the sweltering heat of Iraq are the fighting men of the Army's 19 Mechanized Brigade.

The unit's Black Panther Flag has been lowered in Basra and will shortly be flying again over its home base of Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.

About 5,000 soldiers from the garrison have been deployed to the British area of operations in southern Iraq.

The former summer palace of the deposed leader Saddam Hussein in the country's second city, Basra, has been their headquarters during their stay.

Brigade commander Brigadier Bill Moore - who will be relinquishing his command in early December - said the tour had been extremely difficult and challenging.

"We have faced some of the worst environmental conditions possible with temperatures soaring above 60 degrees centigrade," he said.

"Although the war-fighting was over, there was still a serious threat to the soldiers from former regime extremists and unfortunately we suffered a number of tragic deaths which we all mourn.

"But we also set about improving security in the region so the ordinary Iraqi people could start to rebuild their lives and reconstruct the infrastructure which had lacked investment for almost 30 years.

"I believe the soldiers of 19 Mechanized Brigade have done a truly remarkable job in such a short time and shown the Iraqi people the way forward in a free democratic society."

The Black Panther flag has been replaced over the former palace by the Iron Fist flag of 20 Armoured Brigade.

Normally based in Germany, the armoured brigade will run Operation Telic 3 until April.