Mr Leigh asked when was the last time Mr Blair had spoken to a private soldier without their officer listening, or an ordinary Iraqi.

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Now he was being told that the dead soldier was Private First Class Jay Cajimat, who was twenty years and two months old and who might have died immediately from the blast of the explosion, or a little more slowly in the resulting fire.

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Private Richard Hunt, 21, from Abergavenny became the 200th British soldier to die in the Afghan conflict in August 2009 when his vehicle was hit by an explosive device.

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Fuentes wears bright red shirts, mimicking Chavez's trademark color of choice, calls himself a proud foot soldier in Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution and in his private office there is a life-size photo of the Venezuelan leader.

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And with shells landing around him, amid smoke and chaos and the screams of wounded men, this soldier, this friend, scaled down the icy slope, risking his own life to bring Private Corwin to safer ground.

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