Anniversary services for Lockerbie victims

Wreaths will be laid in the Dumfries and Galloway town where the wreckage of the bombed Pan Am Flight 103 went down on the night of December 21, 1988.

Eleven people died in Lockerbie, along with the 259 passengers and crew on board the New York-bound plane that had set off from Heathrow.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who is from the town, will attend a service at Dryfesdale Cemetery where prayers will be said for all those affected by the biggest mass murder on British soil in recent history.

A message of prayer and good wishes from the Queen to those marking the "solemn anniversary" will be read and a memorial Mass will be held later at the town's Holy Trinity church.

The majority of those on board the jet were American citizens, including 35 students of Syracuse University in New York State.

A memorial will be held at the university, and about 500 people are expected to gather at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia where a cairn made from Lockerbie stone stands in memory of those who died.

Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up by the detonation of an explosive stored in a suitcase in the plane hold.

Many believe the atrocity was committed in revenge for the downing of an Iran Air passenger flight by a US missile cruiser earlier in 1988.

The only person convicted of the bombing, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, died in 2012 after being released from Greenock jail on compassionate grounds.

His family and some relatives of the Lockerbie victims believe he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice and are fighting to clear his name.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission is determining whether a fresh appeal against the conviction should proceed to the courts.

Three decades on, the investigation into the bombing itself continues, with prosecutors pledging to track down Megrahi's accomplices.

Australian Associated Press