In his yet-to-be-released book, UK’s Prince Harry admitted that he killed 25 Afghans when deployed in the Afghanistan war in 2012, making the Taliban strongly react.
Prince Harry, the youngest son of King Charles of England, openly admitted in his upcoming memoir to the murder of 25 people in Afghanistan during his second deployment to the country back in 2012.
Speaking without a sense of regret for taking the lives of so many people, this former member of the British Royal Family wrote in his memoir named “Spare” that “it seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number. So, my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me.”
Indirectly defending his deeds back then, Prince Harry also noted that he those whom he took their lives were, in his eyes, “chess pieces taken off the board, bad guys eliminated before they kill good guys.”
The 38-year-old Prince Harry served as an air controller from 2007-2008 and as an attack helicopter pilot between 2012-2013 during his two times presence in Afghanistan.
Deciding to refuse living as Prince, Harry and his American wife, Meghan, departed from Royal duties back in 2020. The couple then moved to California to forge a new normal life. Since then, however, both Harry and his wife have delivered stinging criticism of the House of Windsor and the British press.
Taliban officials reacted to Harry’s words
Responding to Harry’s comments, Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban leader, wrote in a tweet that “Mr. Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return”, and that “I don’t expect that the (International Criminal Court) will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind for you.”
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson for the Taliban-led Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry, was another Taliban official who also criticized Prince Harry for his controversial comments. In a statement this Friday, Balkhi asserted that “the western Occupation of Afghanistan is truly an odious moment in human history and comments by Prince Harry is a microcosm of the trauma experienced by Afghans at the hands of Occupation Forces who murdered innocents without any accountability.”
Prince Harry rebuked even by British officials
In addition to the harsh reaction that Prince Harry received from the Taliban, a number of UK officials also criticized him for so openly speaking about his military record and killing people.
The UK’s former national security adviser Kim Darroch, who was the British Ambassador to the United States from 2016 to 2019, told Sky News in this regard that he would have advised the young Prince not to make such statements but he just didn’t listen. Retired-commanding officer Colonel Collins also condemned Harry’s comments and described his book as a “tragic money-making scam”.
“That’s not how you behave in the Army; it’s not how we think. Harry has now turned against the other family, the military, that once embraced him having trashed his birth family.” Col Collins said, referring to Prince Harry’s revelation that he killed 25 Afghans. “He has badly let the side down. We don’t do notches on the rifle butt. We never did,” Collins added.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense, however, declined to comment when asked about Harry’s stories. “We do not comment on operational details for security reasons”, a spokesperson for the Ministry said this Friday evening.
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