Taliban Accuses Prince Harry Of 'War Crimes' After He Admits Killing 25 In Afghanistan
Prince Harry's upcoming memoir 'Spare' is scheduled for a January 10 release?but several critical pieces of information in the book have already come to light.
A mistaken sale of the Spanish version of the autobiography on Thursday revealed that Prince Harry has mentioned killing two dozen people during his time as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.?
The book was hurriedly withdrawn from shelves in Spain but not before copies were obtained by media outlets, who pored over its contents and published key excerpts.
Eliminating targets like removing 'chess pieces'
As per a Telegraph report, attributed to the accessed excerpt of the book, Harry said that the army taught him not to look at members of the Taliban as people.
The 38-year-old Duke described eliminating the targets as removing "chess pieces" from a board.?
Taliban official slams Prince Harry
In response to his "chess pieces" remark, a senior Taliban official, Anas Haqqani, on Friday slammed Prince Harry and accused him of committing "war crimes", AFP reported.?
"Mr Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans," Haqqani tweeted.
"The truth is what you've said; Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders."?
"Still, you were defeated in that 'game'."?
Prince Harry reportedly served two tours of duty against the Taliban, first as a forward air controller calling in airstrikes in 2007-2008, then flying the attack helicopter in 2012-2013.?
Harry revealed his kill count
According to a Daily Telegraph report, in the memoir, Harry has also said that he undertook six missions as a pilot, leading to him "taking human lives".?
Harry had never publicly talked about the number of Taliban affiliates he had killed. The information was seemingly available to him as cameras mounted on the nose of his Apache helicopter enabled him to assess his missions and determine his kill count.
"My number is 25. It's not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me," he wrote.?
'Fighting was an act of?vengeance'
He justified his actions because of his memory of the 9/11 attacks in the United States and after meeting the victims' families.
?He added that those responsible and their sympathisers were "enemies of humanity", and fighting them was an act of vengeance for a crime against humanity.?
Harry served for 10 years in the British Army, rising to the rank of captain, and has described his time in the military as his formative years.?
His first tour was conducted under a strict news blackout for security reasons, which British media outlets agreed over. He was forced to return home when a foreign publication broke the embargo.
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