A regional press reporter has returned safely from eight days on the front line patrolling with British troops in Iraq.

Martin Naylor, from the Derby Evening Telegraph, joined reporters and photographers from the Leicester Mercury and Northampton Chronicle and Echo in Basra.

They had been invited to see soldiers from the East Midlands in the 9th and 12th Lancers dealing with the on-going war on terror.

Despite having no luggage for the first four days, Martin admitted he’d had a relatively low-key trip until the last night when a security mission saw the team head from their base into Basra – a ten-mile trip which took two hours.

There were suspicions that improvised explosive devices (IED) had been planted on route which could have been activated remotely by insurgents at any time.

Martin, 40, said: “I was starting to get a little complacent as we hadn’t seen any action until my last day.

“About 10pm someone came in and told us we had 15 minutes to get ready to go to Basra.

“We were going to check out another squadron in the centre of the city based within an Iraqi army base.

“But it took two hours to get just ten miles – we were in a 28-tonne armoured personnel carrier crawling along the road.

“There were IEDs on route and we had to stop at a bridge where a soldier had been killed.

“Soldiers had to uncover every rock to check there was nothing under there.”

Luckily, Martin returned from the hairy trip in one piece and was able to file a series of double-page spreads which the Evening Telegraph will be carrying everyday this week.

He added that it was his first and definitely not his last venture out with the British Army.

Martin (thumbs up) with Captain George Osborne and Ruth Pott-Negrine from the
Northampton Chronicle and Echo onboard a Merlin helicopter