Oxfordshire's soldiers on the front line in Iraq have spoken out about their fears on the day a new outbreak of violence left more than 150 people dead.

The atrocities of war which they have been trained for are fast becoming a daily reality as Basra comes under increasing attack.

Sergeant Dave Roche, who lives in Nelson Street, Jericho, told me: "Sometimes I think if I come back alive I will just have been lucky."

Yesterday's attacks underlined their concerns, as it became one of the deadliest days since the US-led invasion in March 2003. Car bombs, gunmen and suicide bombers left a toll of more than 150 people dead and hundreds more injured.

Al-Qaeda has claimed it has begun a nationwide bombing campaign in reaction to a recent major offensive on rebels.

Earlier this week the Oxfordshire soldiers, who have been here in Iraq since May, attended a repatriation service at Basra airport to pay their respects to two of the soldiers making their final journey home. Their coffins were carried aboard a Hercules which flew into RAF Brize Norton last night.

For many of the Oxfordshire soldiers, from The Royal Green Jackets based at the Slade Park Barracks, the service brought the grim realities of war much closer to home.

Until recently, the Green Jackets, who are part of the Royal Rifle Volunteers Regiment, had been carrying out their jobs in relative safety, the greater danger being in Baghdad.

But now the threat is moving south and is looming large in Basra, Iraq's second largest city.

Serjeant Roche, who works as head of security at Worcester College, says Tuesday night's repatriation service was particularly poignant.

The 40-year-old said: "We went down to that service and I know what I was thinking and I'm sure the other blokes were too -- 'that could have been me'.

"Just a day or so before the explosion went off that killed those guys we had been patrolling out there, at the very same spot. We had driven past it many times. It makes you realise there is no discrimination when it comes to the bombs. If they go off, they go off, and the enemy don't care who they kill -- civilians or soldiers.

"The increase in attacks has made us all more nervous. We're out here looking right at it now. It's worrying. We've lost lads. We all want to come home alive, not in coffins."

Following an explosion last week which killed three American civilian contractors outright and fatally injured a fourth, Rifleman Chris Grant, a doorman at the Bridge nightclub in Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, was one of the first on the scene to try to save the fourth man's life.

He was one of four men who flew straight out to the scene in helicopters and was there before there was a British Army presence on the ground. He recalls looking down on the scene, his first real war experience, and seeing chaos.

"It was a mess," he says. "Chaos, absolute chaos. There was a car on its roof, people fleeing, everyone panicking. We were quite high off the ground, but you could still make it all out. At the time I just did the job, but I can't deny that it has since shaken me up.

"I've never seen anything like this before. It stays in your mind and is still there now. Unfortunately, with the way things are out here at the moment, I'm afraid I am sure I will see it again soon."

The heat is rising politically as the mid-October election beckons and intelligence here suggests this is the main reason why trouble is beginning to kick off.

With the warring, trigger-happy tribal factions in Basra, trouble flares up with the least encouragement.

The searing heat here -- the mercury rose to 46C today -- and the bleak, barren desert surroundings take their toll on the troops, but the new, constant threat of enemy action presents a different, more sinister, burden on Oxfordshire's men.