TERRITORIAL Army soldiers from Northallerton are heading for Iraq in the first call-up of its kind for more than 50 years.

Seven members of the Tyne Tees Regiment are undergoing military skills and fitness training before flying out to the Gulf in July.

The group is part of an infantry company which is being deployed in Iraq for six months to support joint UK and USA operations. A call-out of this size has not occurred since the Suez crisis in 1956.

More than 100 TA soldiers nationwide have received their call-up papers.