A senior Taliban official on Friday slammed Prince Harry for a section of his book that claimed he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan and saw them as ‘pieces’ on a chessboard as instructed.
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Prince Harry reveals the exact number of people killed during his two tours of duty in Afghanistan in a book to be published next week.
“My number is 25. It’s not a number that satisfies me, but I’m not ashamed of it,” she wrote in her book, the Spanish edition of which went on sale a few hours Thursday.
He considered these individuals “chess pieces” removed from the game because the purpose of his training was to not kill a target “if you treat it as a person”.
“Mr. Harry! The people you killed were not chess players, they were human beings,” Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban official with families, accused the prince of “war crimes” on Friday.
“But what you say is true: our innocent people were chess pieces for your soldiers and your military and political leaders,” he added. “But in spite of everything, you lost this ‘game'”.
Afghan government spokesman Bilal Karimi also criticized the issue.
“These crimes are not unique to Harry, but every occupying power has committed similar crimes against our country,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Afghans will never forget the crimes of the occupiers,” he continued.
“You need to shut up!”
Harry served in the British Army for 10 years, ending his career as a captain.
He was deployed twice to Afghanistan, first in 2007 and 2008, where he was responsible for coordinating air strikes, and then in 2012 and 2013 as a helicopter gunship pilot.
Cameras mounted on the front of the helicopter helped assess the success of the mission and determine exactly how many people he had killed.
He defended his actions with the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, believing that the enemies he fought in Afghanistan had committed a crime against humanity.
His account was also criticized in England.
“We love you Prince Harry, but you need to shut up!” tweeted Ben McBean, a former Royal Marine who lost an arm and a leg in Afghanistan in 2008 and whom the Duke of Sussex describes in his book as a “true hero”.
Reserve Colonel Tim Collins, who served in the Iraq war, told the British Army website that Harry has now turned against his other family, the army.
“It’s not how we act in the military, it’s how we think,” Prince said of the account of the fighters he killed.
He judged the book “a sad money-making scam”.
This isn’t the first time Prince Harry has sparked controversy for his involvement in operations in Afghanistan.
In 2013, he noted that killing insurgents was like playing a video game for a helicopter pilot.
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