HUNDREDS of soldiers from Cumbria and North Lancashire are helping to keep the peace in Iraq after being shipped out to battle-torn Basrah, reports Ellie Hargreaves.

Several hundred infantry soldiers and officers from the 1st Battalion King's Own Royal Border Regiment have been posted to the Southern Iraq city for an expected six-month tour of duty, with the last of the troops being sent this week.

With temperatures soaring to 35C in the day and plunging as low as minus four at night, the men and women will form part of the 8,000 strong 7 Armoured Brigade, which has been deployed to the war-ravaged Gulf to replace the 12 Mechanised Brigade.

The North Luffenham-based KORBR which recruits from Cumbria and the north of Lancashire and is due to be amalgamated with two other northern regiments next year - is now part of a multi-national taskforce charged with training Iraqi soldiers at the Basic Training Centre at Camp Ur.

The brigade has been joined in the major operation by several Territorial Army troops from the area as well.

The infantry battalion received special training to prepare it for the mission. As well as learning Arabic, before the first troops were sent out to prepare ground for Operation TELIC 7, at the beginning of this month, they revised procedures for carrying out check-point searches and received tuition in cultural awareness.

But their work on the ground began only this week, when the troops started patrolling the streets of Basrah and overseeing the basic military training of new Iraqi recruits, which has been carried out by Iraqi instructors, under the UK force's supervision, since August.

Speaking before he was deployed, Kirkby Stephen Private Luke Steven, 19, said he would be looking to his seniors to help him through difficult times including Christmas.

"We respect and look up to all the seniors," he said. "They have been there and done it all before and they are there to give us advice and listen to our concerns."

Corporal Adam Jones, 28, from Heysham, is out there as a company storeman, working with local civilians to ensure the soldiers have enough food, water and equipment.

"I'm taking lots of entertainment with me, around 100 DVDs, so that I don't get bored," he said before he left.

Meanwhile, Kendal man Steve Bowman, 33, is keeping up to date with local gossip thanks to weekly postings of The Westmorland Gazette, which family are sending out.

Kevin Hegarty, press officer for the KORBR, said the troops faced a number of challenges ahead but had worked hard and had been looking forward to their tour-of-duty.

As well as Christmas gifts from home, the local lads will be treated to a performance from Welsh opera babe' Katherine Jenkins, who is due to fly out to sing to the troops on December 21.

Last week, the Ministry Of Defence announced that the US-led invasion had claimed its 97th British fatality since the war began in March 2003. The soldier - from the 1st Battalion the Coldstream Guards - was on a routine patrol when he was injured in a roadside bomb attack in Basrah.