A service to commemorate the sacrifices made by British men and women who served in Iraq is being held today.

Iraq veterans and bereaved families joined the Queen, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and senior military leaders for the poignant event held at St Paul's Cathedral.

Servicemen and women injured during the campaign, known as Operation Telic, and the families of those killed in the conflict were also among the congregation.

The soldiers, sailors and airmen, joined by their families, arrived in uniform with many proudly wearing their medals.

Some fought in the first few days of the Iraq war, launched in 2003, while others worked to maintain peace during the following six years.

The conflict claimed the lives of 179 British personnel - 178 servicemen and women and one civilian Ministry of Defence worker.

Senior royals took their place among the congregation, including the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and the Princess Royal.

Also present were significant figures who played important roles in the campaign, from ex-prime minister Tony Blair who led Britain into war to former heads of the Army Sir Mike Jackson and Sir Richard Dannatt.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who has been critical of the Iraq war in the past, gave the address during the service.

He hinted at the controversial nature of Operation Telic, which brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets in protest in the run-up to the war.

He said: "The conflict in Iraq will, for a long time yet, exercise the historians, the moralists, the international experts.

"In a world as complicated as ours has become, it would be a very rash person who would feel able to say without hesitation, this was absolutely the right or the wrong thing to do, the right or the wrong place to be."

Dr Williams had some criticism for "policy makers" for talking about the conflict without calculating its cost.

He said: "Many people of my generation and younger grew up doubting whether we should ever see another straightforward international conflict, fought by a standing army with conventional weapons.

"We had begun to forget the realities of cost. And when such conflict appeared on the horizon, there were those among both policy makers and commentators who were able to talk about it without really measuring the price, the cost of justice."

But Dr Williams praised the efforts of the forces on the ground who were really the ones with the task of upholding Britain's "moral credibility".

He concluded by thanking "those who have taught us through their sacrifice the sheer worth of justice and peace and who have shouldered some of the responsibility for fleshing out the values most of us only talk about".