3:57pm Friday 19th March 2010
By Lauren Rogers
A SOLDIER has described the moment that a Taliban bomb left five of his comrades, including Herefordshire rifleman William Aldridge, dead.
Eighteen-year-old Rfn Aldridge, of Bromyard, was one of the youngest soldiers serving in Helmand when he died in July last year.
Speaking today at an inquest into his comrade’s death, Sergeant Jaime Moncho, of 2nd Battalion The Rifles, said the Herefordshire teenager was one of the first to be hit by the blast.
He went on to describe how Corporal Jonathan ‘Jay’ Horne, 28, from Walsall; Rifleman James Backhouse, 18, from Castleford, West Yorkshire; Rifleman Joseph Murphy, 18, from Castle Bromwich; and Rifleman Daniel Simpson, 20, from Croydon, south London, and Rfn Aldridge, were out on patrol meeting with locals when the bomb went off.
Coroner David Ridley recorded verdicts of unlawful killing, adding that if the Taliban suspects were ever caught they would face murder charges.
• See tomorrow’s Worcester News for the full story.
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