A soldier who vowed to try to help bring peace and order to Afghanistan died in a tripwire trap laid by the Taleban, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday.

Ranger Justin Cupples, 29, of the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, who died on Thursday, is understood to have caught his foot in a tripwire attached to an improvised explosive device. He was the 117th member of Britain’s Armed Forces to die in Afghanistan since November 2001.

Before his deployment to Afghanistan, Ranger Cupples, known as “Cups”, had spoken about his wish to take on the Taleban following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001.

He was born and brought up in the US, living in Miami, and joined the American Navy before he and his family moved to Co Cavan in the Republic of Ireland. He was serving on board the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during the initial stages of the USled operation to overthrow the Taleban regime after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Interviewed before 1 Royal Irish deployed to Helmand in April, Ranger Cupples said: “It was one of the things I regretted after September 11, not being able to go in there [Afghanistan] and do the job that needed to be done, and obviously still needs doing. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t apprehensive at some level but I’m anxious to go at the same time.” He added: “I think it’s now about trying to restore order to Afghanistan and trying to make it into some sort of a country.”

Speaking to the News Letter, a Northern Ireland newspaper, Ranger Cupples said that it had taken him some time to get over the 9/11 attacks “because my ship left nine days after that happened and we didn’t get the chance to deal with it”.

He admitted that he was still driven by the memory of the “unprovoked attack”, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Underlining his dedication to the task he and his regiment were given in Helmand, Ranger Cupples learnt to speak Pashto, one of the main languages in Afghanistan.

The MoD said that Ranger Cupples, who was married to a Lithuanian and still lived in Co Cavan, had had a gift for languages and was one of the relatively few soldiers to have developed a good understanding of Pashto.

His grasp of the language was so good that often the patrols in which he was a member were deployed without an Afghan interpreter. “He was more than capable of communicating with the local nationals,” the MoD said in a tribute.

Ranger Cupples left the US Navy five years ago but missed the military life and joined the Royal Irish when he moved to Co Cavan.

“I always thought of him as our ‘US Ranger’,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Ed Freely, commanding officer of 1 Royal Irish. “For almost six months he and his fellow Rangers have fought hard to rid Sangin of the evil scourge of the Taleban and bring security to the town and its troubled people.”

The Royal Irish are serving with 2 Para battle group, which is based in Sangin. The town is located in the fertile valley that runs through the centre of Helmand province, where the Taleban are present in strength. Many British soldiers have died in and around Sangin.

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