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Hundreds of Second World War graves that were damaged in Iraq have been restored after decades when it was thought too dangerous to risk carrying out the work.

The graves, in the Habbaniya War Cemetery 60 miles west of Baghdad, are the last resting place of 173 Second World War casualties and 117 people who died in conflicts in the late 1940s to 1950s.

They had fallen into disrepair because, since 1990, the violence that has gripped Iraq has made it too dangerous for experts to be sent in to work on them.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) placed its operations in the country on hold for decades, save for brief periods where repairs could be carried out.

In December, work began in France on nearly 300 white Portland stone headstones which were transported to Iraq, where work on the cemetery began in March.

Months of intensive labour later and the headstones are in place and the cemetery is back to something approaching its former glory.

Habbaniya was a peace time Royal Air Force station, maintained under the Anglo-Iraqi treaty of 1930 and sits inside what is now an Iraqi air base.

Among the soldiers buried there is Lance Corporal William Kirby, born in Liverpool, who died aged 22 during fighting for Fallujah on 22 May, 1941.

Mr Kirby joined the army at the outbreak of the Second World War and was stationed in India before being airlifted to Iraq to reinforce the British garrison at RAF Habbaniya with 350 men from the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster).

He was one of 18 men from his regiment killed on the same day as they fought Iraqi nationalist forces for control of the strategically-important town on the road to Baghdad.

Lance Corporal Kirby and his fallen comrades' graves have gradually deteriorated over time due to the high salt content in the Iraqi ground.

The CWGC maintains 23,000 memorial and cemetery sites around the world, helping to commemorate 1.7 million Commonwealth war dead.