France honors fallen soldiers in Afghanistan after Trump's false claim about NATO troops

PARIS (AP) — A senior French government official said Monday the memory of the French soldiers who died in Afghanistan should not be tarnished following U.S. President Donald Trump's false assertion that troops from non-U.S. NATO countries avoided the front line during that war.

Alice Rufo, the minister delegate at the Defense Ministry, laid a wreath at a monument in downtown Paris dedicated to those who died for France in overseas operations. Speaking to reporters, Rufo said the ceremony had not been planned until the weekend, adding that it was crucial to show that “we do not accept that their memory be insulted.”

In October 2001, nearly a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. led an international coalition in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida, which had used the country as its base, and the group’s Taliban hosts.

Alongside the U.S. were troops from dozens of countries, including from NATO, whose mutual-defense mandate had been triggered for the first time after the attacks on New York and Washington. In an interview with Fox Business Network in Davos, Switzerland, Trump on Thursday claimed that non-U.S. NATO troops stayed “a little off the frontlines” in Afghanistan.

Ninety French soldiers died in the conflict.

“At such a moment, it is symbolically important to be there for their families, for their memory, and to remind everyone of the sacrifice they made on the front line,” Rufo said.

After his comments caused an outcry, Trump appeared to backpedal and heaped praise on the British soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. He had no words for other troops, though.

“I have seen the statements, in particular from veterans’ associations, their outrage, their anger, and their sadness,” Rufo said, adding that trans-Atlantic solidarity should prevail over polemics.

“You know, there is a brotherhood of arms between Americans, Britons, and French soldiers when we go into combat.”