SOLDIERS were greeted with hugs and kisses as they returned home safely from Iraq early yesterday.

About 300 men and women from the Queen's Royal Lancers flew into Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Their families were waiting to welcome them home at their base at Cambrai Barracks, Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.

The Lancers are the first major regiment from 19 Light Brigade to return home to the region.

The troops have spent the past seven months in the desert of the Maysan Province, in southern Iraq.

The regiment patrolled the border with Iran to stop insurgents bringing in weapons, ammunition and explosives.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Nixon-Eckersall, the regiment's commanding officer, flew home with his soldiers.

He said: "I am enormously proud of the men and women.

"I cannot overstate how well the regiment has done. They have worked extremely hard and produced some fantastic results."

He said he had returned from Iraq still positive about the country's future.

He said: "The province we were operating in is now under provincial Iraqi control.

"We as a battle group have played a major role in bringing this about.

"The Iraqis are now much better equipped to take responsibility for their own province."

The troops spent three weeks at a time in the desert, before they returned to the base for a week of rest and recuperation.

While in the desert, the soldiers lived out of their vehicles, moving every 48 to 72 hours.

Many of their supplies were dropped in by air.

Lt Col Nixon-Eckersall said the regiment was the first to use these tactics since the Second World War.

The regiment came under heavy fire while in the desert and back at base, and three men died during the tour.

On April 19, Corporal Ben Leaning and Trooper Kristen Turton were killed by a roadside bomb.

On January 7, Sergeant Wayne Rees died when his armoured vehicle left the road and overturned.

Lt Col Nixon-Eckersall said the men had died doing a job that they loved, and said: "My thoughts and those of everybody within the regiment are with the families of those that we have lost."