troops from The 3rd Battalion the Rifles have been welcomed home from a tour of Afghanistan by their overjoyed families.
The soldiers arrived back in Edinburgh after a six-month tour of duty, and the 450 riflemen will be given the freedom of the city at a parade at the weekend.
The Battalion was deployed as part of 12 Mechanised Brigade to command Task Force Helmand and their work included training and mentoring Afghan security forces.
Captain Dan Brown, 31, from Edinburgh, returned from his third tour and was welcomed home by his wife Claire, 32, and two-year-old daughter Martha.
Captain Brown said: "It is brilliant to be back home. The colder weather isn't bothering me one bit after being in the heat of the desert for six months."
The soldiers, who are based at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, will hold a Homecoming Parade on Saturday, when they will be given the Freedom of Edinburgh.
Lance Corporal Philip Davies, who is from Bristol but now lives in Edinburgh, was welcomed back by his son Benton, two, and said he was delighted to be given the freedom of the city.
The battalion suffered a serious casualty during the tour. Lieutenant Andrew Chesterman was injured by enemy fire in Nad-e Ali on August 9 and later died in Camp Bastion.
Commanding officer Colonel Charlie Maconochie said: "Lt Chesterman was an outstanding Rifles officer and he always led from the front. His death has left a huge hole in the battalion."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article