LONDON—The Queen joined bereaved families and leading politicians on Friday for a service of remembrance to honour British service personnel who fought and died during the war in Iraq.
Britain's combat operations in Iraq formally ended on April 30, six years after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
During that time, more than 100,000 members of the armed forces and civilian personnel served in Iraq and 179 British servicemen and women were killed.
The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Prince William joined veterans and dignitaries as well as families of some of those who lost their lives at the service in London's St Paul's Cathedral.
Other attendees included Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraq's President Jalal Talabani.
"My brief words today cannot convey the great debt, and gratitude, of the Iraqi people to those men and women who joined in the liberating of Iraq," Talabani said.
"We continue to strive to make Iraq free, prosperous and a good regional neighbour. This opportunity for a new and better Iraq would not have been possible without the commitment and sacrifice of British service personnel."
During the service, Tracey Hazel, the mother of Corporal Ben Leaning who was killed in 2007 by a roadside bomb, lit a memorial candle bearing the words "Iraq 2003-2009."
"I feel honoured to take part in this service. I know it means such a great deal to all the families to have their loved ones remembered in this way," she said.
"I am so proud of my son and what he did in Iraq. Today has been full of emotion, but it is important that we are all here to remember them."
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams blessed the central tablet of the Basra Memorial Wall, a monument constructed in 2006 outside the multi-national force base in the southern Iraqi city with the names of all those who died.
The wall was brought back to Britain at the end of the operation and will be rebuilt at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
During his sermon, Williams, a long-standing critic of the war, said policy makers and commentators had forgotten the true costs of war when "conflict appeared on the horizon."
"Perhaps we have learned something—if only that there is 'a time to keep silence', a time to let go of the satisfyingly overblown language that is so tempting for human beings when war is in the air," he told the congregation.
He said the war would for a long time yet, exercise historians, moralists, and international experts.
"In a world as complicated as ours has become, it would be a very rash person who would feel able to say without hesitation, this was absolutely the right or the wrong thing to do, the right or the wrong place to be," he said.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the armed forces had done an outstanding job could take great pride "in their contribution towards setting Iraq on the path to stability and prosperity."
"It is an honour for me to be here today to show my respect for these brave men and women, and to pay tribute to those who lost their lives and to the families they left behind," he said.
A reception at London Guildhall followed the Service of Commemoration.
