Mother of teenage British soldier killed by US bomb in Afghanistan demands Donald Trump apologises for his ‘insult to our fallen’ following Nato comments

The mother of a teenage British soldier who was killed by a US bomb in Afghanistan has demanded that Donald Trump apologise for saying that Nato troops stayed ‘off the front lines’ during the conflict.

Lorraine McClure said she was ‘angry and cut up’ about President Trump’s ‘insult’ to the memory of the 457 British troops including her son Aaron, 19, who died on active service in Afghanistan.

Aaron McClure and two other soldiers from the 1st Battalion of The Royal Anglian Regiment died in a ‘friendly fire’ incident on August 23, 2007, when they were killed in a blast from a 500lbs a bomb dropped by a US F-15 jet.

Ms McClure of Ipswich, Suffolk, hit out at Trump’s comments after he tried to argue in a Fox News interview that he was ‘not sure’ that the Nato military alliance would be there for the US ‘if we ever needed them’.

In a statement which has sparked widespread outrage in the UK, he said: ‘We’ve never needed them… We have never really asked anything of them… They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan… and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines’.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Ms McClure, 55, demanded he withdraw his comments, saying: ‘He owes an apology to every servicemen who served through Nato.

‘I think the guy is on a bit of an ego trip. He should definitely pull back from what he said. He should send out a public apology.’

‘I feel quite saddened about what he said, considering there were 457 of our guys and girls on the front line who are sadly no longer here with their families.

‘I am pretty angry and cut up about it. It is just an insult to our fallen and their memory, and the fact that they gave their all.’

Ms McClure who works as a bus driver, added: ‘I did not have many thoughts about Donald Trump before. He didn’t faze me and I didn’t take much notice of anything he said or did. I had no opinion of the man whatsoever, but I definitely have an opinion of him now. I won’t put that into words.’

She made her anger plain in an emotional Facebook post of pictures of fallen British soldiers including her son who was nicknamed Troy, and a crying emoji.

She wrote: ‘Potus says our Nato troops were never in the Frontline in Afghanistan. I say he’s forgotten very quickly. Here’s the faces of 457 brave men and women who served in the British army who gave their all, most being FRONTLINE, including my son Aaron who was in the thick of it all, unfortunately Aaron was killed by the US in a blue on blue alongside 2 others fighting on the FRONTLINE….they gave their all…..never forget .’

Ms McClure spoke out in 2021 when American forces left Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban to take back control of the country.

She said at the time that the move left her feeling that her son’s death ‘was for nothing’ and had left her ‘absolutely knocked back’ after she had spent years trying to persuade herself that he had not ‘died in vain’.

Ms McClure today said she had never previously had any direct dealings with the American military after their bomb was ‘dropped on the wrong target and Aaron and two others were killed outright’.

She said: ‘In the very beginning an investigation was happening into the three boys’ deaths and they were around in the background, but we never ever had any face-to-face dealings with them.

‘There was never any forthcoming apologies from the Americans for what happened, but that could just be me being a bit of a bitter mum, you know.’

‘I don’t hold them fully responsible, but they were part of that incident. There were a few mistakes made on both sides, so you can’t point a finger at people.

‘Life goes on as well, and you have got to try and move on from these things, if you sit and think about it – I try not to – then I will get angry a little bit still, but he was doing a job he loved.’

Ms McClure who has three other sons Lewis, 36, Daniel, 34, and Ryan, 31, said she had been active in keeping alive the memory of Aaron who has a huge mural in tribute to him on a wall opposite her home.

She said: ‘I don’t want anyone to forget Aaron. The locals where I live have never forgotten him. A lot of Ipswich has never forgotten him. I will always be proud of him. I don’t want Aaron to be forgotten, or the sacrifice he made to be forgotten any more than any of the others.’

Ms McClure said her son Lewis had been due to join the Army when his brother died, and had a train ticket booked to start his training at Catterick, but ended up not doing so.

She said she was heartened to ‘wake up every morning and see the beautiful mural’ in memory of Aaron. She said: ‘It makes me smile every day’.

Aaron died along with Robert Foster, 19, and John Thrumble, 21, when the compound they were in was hit by an F-15 bomb after air support had been called in when they came under ‘accurate fire from a determined Taliban force during a fighting patrol’.

Two other British soldiers were injured in the tragic incident north west of Kajaki, in northern Helmand Province.

Ms McClure’s comments come after politicians from across the political spectrum reacted with outrage to President Trump’s comments.

Sir Keir Starmer hit out at Trump for ‘diminishing the sacrifice and service of our troops’ in a television interview that worsened the deepest transatlantic rift in decades.

The PM’s spokesman added: ‘Their sacrifice and that of other Nato forces was made in the service of collective security and in response to an attack on our ally.’

And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused the president of talking ‘flat-out nonsense’, about those who ‘fought and died alongside the US’, adding: ‘Their sacrifice deserves respect not denigration.’

Labour’s Defence Secretary John Healey said: ‘Those British troops should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.’

And Armed Forces Minister Al Cairns, who did five tours in Afghanistan with the Royal Marines, said the president’s words were ‘utterly ridiculous’.

Reform MP Robert Jenrick said the president’s comments were ‘offensive and wrong’.

Party leader Nigel Farage, a close ally of Mr Trump, has yet to comment. 

But a Reform spokesman said: ‘Donald Trump’s comments are plain wrong. For 20 years our armed forces fought bravely alongside America’s in Afghanistan.

‘We spent the same amount of money pro rata and we suffered the same losses. Those men and women deserve our undying respect.’