Australian soldier's body starts to send home from Afghanistan

Australian trooper Jason Brown, killed in a firefight with insurgents in Afghanistan on Friday, started his final journey home on Tuesday.

Trooper Brown, 29, a member of the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), was farewelled by fellow members of the Special Operations Task Group in a moving ceremony at Camp Russell at the main Australian base Tarin Kowt, located in southern Afghanistan.

He was the 18th Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan and the seventh so far this year.

His flag-draped casket was carried from the base and placed aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft for the flight to the Australian base at the Al-Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.

More than 1,000 Australian, ISAF and Afghan servicemen and women on Tuesday lined the road to the Tarin Kowt airstrip to pay their final respects.

Source: Xinhua