Soldier buys Somerset house for fleeing Afghan colleague

A soldier says he bought a house to help resettle his fleeing Afghan friend to pay him back for his support.

Deployed to Afghanistan, British soldier James Dieterle worked as a translator to Afghan Forces in 2010.

In 2021, Mr Dieterle helped his former colleague's evacuation out of the country to Somerset, following the dramatic and rapid fall of the Afghan government.

He said: "He was sending me messages to say, 'hey, I really need help'."

Deployed to Afghanistan as part of the British Army's Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corp (REME), Mr Dieterle said he first formed a friendship with the Afghan man while working as his translator.

"His English was, at that time, pretty much non-existent but any time that we had to deal with anything on the ground, I would translate between him and our UK troops.

"Or, if there was any paperwork that needed translating, I would translate the paperwork - which was all in Farsi - and I would translate it back to English."

Mr Dieterle's deployment eventually ended, and it wasn't until late 2020 into early 2021 that his friend got in touch with him again.

"We realised things had started to go wrong in Afghanistan again," said Mr Dieterle.

"We heard all the troops were pulling out and then, of course, we all know that the country fell within a matter of days."

The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) was launched in April 2021 by the UK government, with local authorities later that year being called upon to expand their support to Afghan personnel who had worked alongside the British military as interpreters and translators, as well as at-risk citizens.

With his friend begging for help, Mr Dieterle said he made it his mission to do all he could, even getting in touch with other