Military police remembered their dead colleagues on Friday

Leaflets have been dropped by plane onto Majar al-Kabir, telling local people that the troops would return "to set up good relations with you".

The decision to resume operations in the small southern town was announced as a service remembering the dead Royal Military Police (RMP) officers was held at Chichester Cathedral.

It is thought they were attacked during demonstrations against what were seen as heavy-handed weapons searches.

Eight members of the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment were also wounded in the town on the same day, following a "misunderstanding" over the searches.

'Good relations'

Residents of Majar al-Kabir have been told there will be no reprisals for the attacks on British military personnel.

The leaflets said: "We will not return to punish anyone since these are the methods of Saddam's regime.

Thomas Keys was among the six soldiers killed

"We will return to set up good relations with you because of our concern about a secure Iraq."

Calling for the chance for troops to be judged by their actions alone, the leaflet added: "Don't let rumours ruin our good relations."

A specific date for the troops return has not been announced.

Following Tuesday's attacks, Major General Peter Wall told the BBC that investigators were piecing together the events that ended with the six deaths.

"We know that they were in the police station, we know that they were overwhelmed by an aggressive crowd, we know that ultimately, and very sadly, they were all killed".

He said the soldiers' deaths had not affected morale and would not change the way troops run patrols in Iraq.

Book of remembrance

The dead soldiers were remembered at a service attended by 800 people at Chichester Cathedral in West Sussex.

RMP TROOPS KILLED IN IRAQ Corporal Simon Miller, 21 Tyne and Wear Sergeant Simon Alexander Hamilton-Jewell, 41 from Chessington, Surrey Corporal Russell Aston, 30 Swadlincote, Derbyshire Corporal Paul Graham Long, 24 Colchester Lance-Corporal Benjamin John McGowan Hyde, 23 Northallerton, Yorks Lance-Corporal Thomas Richard Keys, 20 Bala, N Wales The soldiers who died Service to remember the dead

They had all trained at a barracks in the city and a book of remembrance has been opened for them at its Cathedral.

The service had been originally organised to mark the 200th anniversary of Chichester's Roussillon Barracks.

But the Bishop of Chichester, the Right Rev John Hind, told the congregation the thanksgiving was also a reflection on the loss.

He said: "The event was a poignant reminder of the cost of peacemaking, peacekeeping and community building."

He said the Archbishop of Canterbury had offered his "sympathy and condolence" to all those affected by the deaths.

The RMP's Lieutenant Colonel Ian Stenning said there was "sad reflection" following the deaths, the regiment's biggest loss in a single day in more than 50 years.

'Hostile elements'

The father of one of the soldiers killed has suggested they had insufficient back-up when they came under fire, in Majar al-Kabir.

Reg Keys demanded to know more about the circumstances in which his 20-year-old son Thomas, a Lance Corporal, and the other soldiers died.

He said: "It would appear that they sent these six young men into a police station to do a job in a hostile country with hostile elements with very, very little support around them.