Prince Harry reveals he killed 25 talibans in Afghanistan
The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry says he killed 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan during his time as an Apache helicopter pilot.
Harry served first as a forward air controller in air attacks from 2007 and 2008, and later flew the attack helicopter between 2012 and 2013.
The 38-year-old Royal spare made this known in his forthcoming autobiography ‘Spare’ according to the United Kingdom’s media on Friday.
In it, he reveals for the first time that he killed 25 enemy fighters – which is perfectly possible after two tours in the Helmand region of the country.
“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it make me ashamed,” he writes.
“When I was plunged into the heat and confusion of battle, I didn’t think about those as 25 people. You can’t kill people if you see them as people.
“In truth, you can’t hurt people if you see them as people. They were chess pieces taken off the board, bad guys eliminated before they kill good guys.
“They trained me to ‘other’ them and they trained me well.”
Harry briefly served as a forward air controller on the ground calling in strikes, before flying Apache helicopters in his second longer tour.
Responding to the prince’s comments, Taliban leader Anas Haqqani tweeted: “Mr Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return…
“I don’t expect that the (International Criminal Court) will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind for you.”
The US and its Nato allies invaded in October 2001 to oust the Taliban, whom they said were harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks.