‘Barbaric’ prince should face court over killings, says Taliban chief
‘Harry’s claim that he killed 25 Taliban is a nightmare for his security. How stupid can you be?’
THE Duke of Sussex should be brought before an “international court” after “proudly confessing [the] crime” of killing 25 people in Afghanistan, a senior Taliban official has said.
In his memoir Spare, which was released in Spain on Thursday, the Duke of Sussex details flying on six missions on his second tour in Afghanistan in 2012 and killing 25 Taliban fighters.
Khalid Zadran, a spokesman in Kabul for the Taliban, said: “Prince Harry will always be remembered in Helmand – Afghans will never forget the killing of their innocent countrymen.
“The perpetrators of such crimes will one day be brought to the international court and criminals like Harry who proudly confess their crimes will be brought to the court table in front of the international community.”
Mr Zadran added that the Duke’s description of those he had killed as “chess pieces”, and saying that he was “neither proud nor ashamed” of his actions, was “cruel”, “barbaric” and that such actions had legitimised the Taliban’s deadly insurgency against Nato troops in Afghanistan.
“Occupying forces in Afghanistan used to start operations under nightfall on our villages. Prince Harry was involved in this and he has taken the lives of dozens of defenceless Afghans,” said Mr Zadran. “The cruel and barbaric actions of Harry and others aroused the Afghan population and led to an armed uprising against them. We call this kind of uprising holy jihad.”
Uaqab Afghan, a Taliban director in the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, said: “Prince Harry was lucky he survived in this land, as many such princes have died in this land through history.”
The Duke’s confession, he said, “exposed the ugly face of those fake human rights champions”.
“Now we will see how international justice groups react to Prince Harry’s atrocities against humanity in Afghanistan,” he added. Anas Haqqani, a Taliban leader whose brother Sirajuddin led the Haqqani Network terror group and is now Afghanistan’s interior minister, said on Twitter: “Mr Harry. The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans. They had families who were waiting for their return.
“Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that ‘game’.”
On his time in Afghanistan, the Duke writes in his memoirs: “I made it my purpose from day one, to never go to bed with any doubt whether I had done the right thing … whether I had shot at Taliban and only Taliban, without civilians in the vicinity.
“I wanted to return to Great Britain with all my limbs, but more than that I wanted to get home with my conscience intact.”
He adds: “So my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me.”
Harry’s admission is likely to lead to heightened concerns over his security. He has long been considered an Islamic terrorist target due to his two prior deployments to Afghanistan.
Last year, the Duke’s barrister said he “does not feel safe” when he is in the UK. He took legal action over a Home Office decision to stop providing full police protection for him while he is in the country following his decision to step back from royal duties in 2020.
In response to Harry’s statement, Andrew Neil, the chairman of The Spectator magazine, tweeted: “Harry’s claim that he killed 25 Taliban is a nightmare – an absolute nightmare – for his security teams. How stupid can you be?”
Social media users also criticised Harry’s confession.
Emran Feroz, an Austrian-afghan journalist, described the Duke as an “imperial mass murderer”.