Fury as he tries to blame media for Taliban storm

VETERANS and grieving relatives of soldiers who took their lives after suffering PTSD have slammed Prince Harry’s claim that he revealed his experiences of war for their benefit.

Harry said he included the detail of killing 25 Taliban fighters in his controversial memoir Spare to reduce suicides in veteran communities, during an appearance on US television.

Publicly discussing ‘notches on the barrel’, a phrase used by the military to refer to enemy personnel they have eliminated, is seen as a huge faux pas among soldiers.

Yet, in what was subsequently condemned as a ‘damage limitation exercise’ by British veterans, Harry insisted he wanted to ‘give space to others to share their experiences without any shame’.

Within hours of the CBS broadcast, British troops and their families dismissed the claim as many veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder found Harry’s admission hugely troubling.

Harry was unchallenged by Stephen colbert, host of The Late Show, when he insisted ‘my words are not dangerous’ – even though serious concerns were raised about the safety of the royal Family and of British citizens overseas when the revelation emerged.

He was also widely accused of emboldening the Taliban, who have returned Afghanistan to a brutal dictatorship since 2021 when Western troops left the country. Last week, leaders of the militant

mocked Harry and called for his ‘war crimes’ to be investigated by an international tribunal.

The Duke of Sussex told colbert his words had been twisted but condemnation of his attempt to deflect criticism was led yesterday by Derek Hunt, whose son nathan served with the prince in Afghanistan but later struggled with PTSD and eventually took his own life.

Mr Hunt, who campaigns on behalf of soldiers suffering with mental health issues, said: ‘However he tries to justify his comments, what he said cannot be unsaid. This is too painful for too many people to be discussed so loosely in public.

‘Veterans were not crying out for this debate, they have spent years trying to forget about the realities of combat, such as taking people’s lives.

‘if the disclosure was part of his therapy, then it should have stayed between him and his therapist. i think he has brought back a lot of memories for those men and women who served and are trying to forget. if all this was for their benefit then Harry has made a mistake.’

Bomb disposal expert nathan belonged to the same desert reconnaissance unit as Harry in 2007-08. He was still serving when he took his own life a decade later.

Harry’s comments he was trying to help former soldiers was met with cheers in the new York studio, which had invited a number of veterans.

He told colbert: ‘The reason as to why i decided to share this in my book. i made a choice to share it because, having spent nearly two decades working with veterans all around the world, i think the most important thing is to be honest and to give space to others to share their experiences without any shame. And my whole goal, my attempt with sharing that detail is to reduce the number of suicides.’

More than 2,000 British soldiers and veterans are believed to have killed themselves since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Harry also told colbert the media had wrongly accused him of ‘boasting’ about his kills, and in doing so had endangered his family.

He said: ‘The most dangerous lie they [the media] have told is that i somehow boasted about the number of people i killed in Afghanistan. My words are not dangerous, but the spin of my words are (sic) very dangerous to my family.’

‘My words are not dangerous’