A senior Taliban official condemned Prince Harry on Friday after the royal revealed he killed 25 men on military duty Afghanistan and wrote that it was like taking “chess pieces” off a board.
British media reported that in his memoir, to be released next week, Harry has revealed the exact number of people killed during his two tours of duty.
“My number is 25. It is not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but neither does it embarrass me,” he wrote in the book “Spare” on Tuesday.
Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban leader, criticized the Duke of Sussex over the remarks, saying those who killed Harry were Afghans who had families.
“Mr. Harry! The people you killed were not chess pieces, they were human beings,” tweeted Haqqani, accusing the prince of committing “war crimes”.
“The truth is what you have said; Our innocent people were chess pieces for your soldiers, army and political leaders.
“Still, you lost in that ‘game’.”
Afghan government spokesman Bilal Karimi also criticized Harry for his remarks.
He tweeted, ‘Such crimes are not limited to Harry only, but every occupying country has a history of such crimes in our country.’
“Afghans will never forget the crimes of the occupiers and will always keep alive the spirit of defending their religion and country.”
Harry served in the British Army for 10 years, rising to the rank of captain.
He served two tours of duty against the Taliban, first in 2007 and 2008 as an forward air controller in air strikes, and later in 2012 and 2013 flying an attack helicopter.
‘Flashman Braggadocio’
Cameras on the nose of his Apache helicopter enabled him to assess his mission and determine with certainty how many people he killed.
He justified his actions in memory of the 9/11 attacks in the United States and after meeting the families of the victims.
He wrote in the book that those responsible and their sympathizers were “enemies of humanity” and that fighting them was retribution for crimes against humanity.
But his comments have drawn strong criticism in Britain.
Ben McBean, a fellow veteran who lost an arm and a leg while serving with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan in 2008 and who was described by Harry as a “real hero”, slammed the prince for his remarks.
“Love you #PrinceHarry but you need to shut up! Makes you wonder the people he’s hanging out with,” he tweeted.
Colonel Tim Collins, who became famous for a stirring speech he gave to his troops before the war in Iraq, said the book was “a sad money-making scam”.
The retired commander told the Forces News website: “Harry has now turned against another family, the Army, who once embraced him.”
On Harry’s claim to have killed 25 people, Collins said: “You don’t behave like that in the army; It’s not how we think.”
Referring to a fictional British soldier, journalist and royal author Tina Brown accused Harry of “boasting” with “flashman braggadocio” about his exploits in Afghanistan.
“It’s very unattractive. I don’t think anybody is going to praise him in the places where it matters,” she told BBC Radio.
This is not the first time Harry has courted controversy regarding his Afghan service.
In 2013, he compared shooting insurgents to playing video games, prompting the Taliban to question his mental health.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)