August 7, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 8, 1424

LONGWORTH (England), Aug 6: Dr David Kelly, the Iraq weapons expert whose suicide has plunged British leader Tony Blair into the worst crisis of his six-year rule, was buried on Wednesday at a country church near the woodland where his body was found.

While friends and family attended the funeral at the picturesque 13th century St Mary’s Church, a few kilometres from David Kelly’s house, there was little let-up in the row.

Government critics were demanding the resignation of a Blair spokesman who caused outrage earlier in the week by comparing Mr Kelly with fictional fantasist Walter Mitty.

The scientist was the anonymous source for a damning BBC report alleging London hyped Saddam Hussein’s weapons capacity.

“It is bitterly ironic that a government that saw fit to employ Dr Kelly at the highest level, which trumpeted his expertise and praised his work for the United Nations, should now turn on him so monstrously,” Professor Alastair Hay, a colleague of Kelly’s, wrote in a newspaper article.—Reuters