The mother of the youngest British soldier to die in Afghanistan has condemned Donald Trump's claim that NATO allies 'stayed a little back, off the front line' as 'extremely upsetting' and 'vile'. Rifleman William Aldridge was killed in a bomb blast in 2009, just 47 days after his 18th birthday.
Lucy Aldridge told the Mirror: 'We live the trauma daily for the rest of our lives because of the contribution that our loved ones made. And they were absolutely on the front line.' She added that her son was patrolling 'Pharmacy Road' in Sangin, Helmand Province, in 2009-2010, 'the worst years for casualties for allied forces because it was the singularly most dangerous place in the world at the time.'
Trump made the remarks during a TV interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as he continued to pressure NATO allies over Greenland. He claimed the US had been treated 'unfairly' by NATO, despite being the only country to invoke Article 5 after 9/11, which led to the invasion of Afghanistan.
Retired army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said Trump showed 'complete ignorance' of the fight, noting that the UK 'took on the fight in Helmand province, the most difficult area of Afghanistan'. Ben Hodges, former Commanding General of the US Army in Europe, called the comments 'sickening' and said 'no American soldier believes what our president just said'.
Some 405 British servicemen and women lost their lives due to hostile action in Afghanistan, with more than 36,000 troops from NATO member states deployed by 2011, including around 9,500 from the UK.
