Tragic aid worker buried on island

Linda Norgrove was killed during a failed rescue attempt by US special forces after being seized by militants in the war-ravaged country.

He parents John and Lorna were joined at Uig Community Centre on Lewis in the Western Isles by hundreds of friends and colleagues for the humanist service.

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt and Barbara Stephenson from the US Embassy in London, were also present.

The ceremony was followed by a traditional Lewis funeral procession and a private interment.

Ms Norgrove was kidnapped during an ambush in the Dewagal valley in Kunar province on September 26. Three local staff taken with her were released unharmed but the aid worker, from the Isle of Lewis, was killed during the rescue mission on October 8.

She was initially said to have died at the hands of her captors but it later emerged a grenade thrown by one of those sent to free her may be to blame. A US military investigation is under way.

An inquest into Ms Norgrove's death held in Salisbury, Wiltshire, last Friday heard she died of penetrating fragment injuries to her head and chest.

The former United Nations employee was working for the firm Development Alternatives Inc.