THE widow of a North-East soldier killed in Iraq spoke of her relief last night at the arrests of insurgents believed responsible for his death.

Family and friends of Guardsman Anthony Wakefield said they had feared no one would ever be brought to justice for his killing.

The 24-year-old Tyneside serviceman, a member of the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, died in a roadside bomb blast while on patrol in the Al Amarah area, in the Maysan province of southern Iraq, on May 1.

Several weeks later, another member of the British forces, 21-year-old Lance Corporal Alan Brackenbury, from Goole, east Yorkshire, was killed in another blast in the area.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that a group suspected of responsibility for both attacks was arrested in raids yesterday.

Troops from the Staffordshire Regiment detained the men in the early hours, arresting "less than five" suspects.

The MoD said the operations, carried out by Task Force Maysan, also recovered 130 detonators and other bomb-making equipment.

"Those targeted were suspected of being involved in recent attacks which claimed the lives of the two UK soldiers," said a spokesman.

All those arrested were Iraqi civilians.

The spokesman said "no hostile action" was encountered by troops making the arrests.

Intelligence experts were last night analysing equipment and information obtained as a result of the raids.

The MoD refused to reveal where the men are now being detained. But they are expected to be handed to the Iraq Police Force once they have been questioned by military investigators.

Guardsman Wakefield's ex-wife, Ann Toward, 30, was told of the arrests by a neighbour in Byker, Newcastle, who heard the news on television.

She said: "I'm pleased that they might have got them. Things are such a mess in Iraq that I didn't hold out much hope that they would.

"They should keep them locked up. People like that should never be freed to do the kind of things they do."

Ms Toward, who was critical after Mr Wakefield's death of Tony Blair for leading British troops into the conflict, added: "Things can't go on the way they are in Iraq. We're still losing soldiers over there and I still don't think Anthony should have been over there in the first place.

"It's been difficult to get on with our lives since the children lost their dad, and with Father's Day coming up soon, it's been very hard.

"I really do think they should bring the troops home."

Mr Wakefield was father of two of her three children - Scott, seven, and Corey, two.

She said Scott still asks if he can write his dad a letter.

Ms Toward has been comforted since the tragedy by neighbour Angela Cairns, 42, whose son, Steven, was saved by Mr Wakefield in a river rescue in the Tyne in 2002.

The couple split in 2003, but Ms Toward said she had kept in contact.

At the time of his death, Mr Wakefield was making wedding plans with fiancee Kym Charlton, of Kingston Park, Newcastle, following their engagement at Easter.

Speaking last night, Ms Charlton, 27, said she had only just heard the news of the arrests and was still "numb", trying to come to terms with his death.

"I don't know how I feel at the moment, I'm trying to cope on my own and it's really hard to talk about Anthony," she said.

The couple had hoped to marry once his six-month tour in Iraq ended in October.