KIRKLEES Council leader Mehboob Khan says all communities across Huddersfield are in shock and has pledged that the council will support the families in the weeks and months to come.

He said the families should ‘lead’ on what services will take place for the three young soldiers and the council will help them.

He said: “At first Huddersfield was in shock and disbelief and now the town is trying to come to terms with the tragedy and the loss of the lives of three sons of Huddersfield who have paid the ultimate sacrifice so we can live a life free from the threat or terrorism and hostility.

“This just brings home to us so many thousands of miles away that these young people are doing a job in one of the most dangerous places on the planet and we admire them and are grateful to them for what they are doing for us.

“My eldest boys are 19 and 21 and I just can’t imagine what the parents of these soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan are going through.

“We still have thousands of young men and women in Afghanistan and hundreds of them are from our area.’’

He said the entire Huddersfield community will come together to support the families.

“I have been in a mosque and the same feeling are being expressed by the people there.’’

A FORMER Mayor who organised a freedom parade for the 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire regiment in Huddersfield has paid tribute to the three soldiers.

In June 2010 Clr Andrew Palfreeman hosted the parade and reception in Huddersfield when the 3rd Battalion paraded through the town.

“I was very saddened to hear the terrible news of the deaths of so many local young men from the 3rd Battalion,’’ he said.

“One of the highlights of my year as Mayor was to host their parade in Huddersfield and to meet so many of them at the later reception in Huddersfield Town Hall.

“I expressed our pride and support for all they did on our behalf. I told them that they were ‘Our Regiment’.

“The 3rds are a local Battalion and these events hit us all. It’s important that we remember, not only those who have been directly affected, but also local families who still fear the knock on the door and the rest of the soldiers, still in Afghanistan who will have been greatly affected by the incident but who will continue to do their job as the professionals they are.”

FORMER Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, soldier James Brown rang The Examiner from Oldham to express his condolences.

Mr Brown, who served in Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe, plans to try to help raise money for the families of the dead soldiers or military charity Help For Heroes by auctioning off his Duke of Wellington Regiment gold ring and silk flag at a ex-forces reunion in Huddersfield later this month.