Taliban criticizes Prince Harry over killings in Afghanistan
January 6, 2023
Following the revelation in the soon-to-be-published memoir of Prince Harry that the British royal had killed 25 people during the war in Afghanistan, several leading Taliban figures responded with anger on Friday.
The now-38-year-old royal carried out two tours in Afghanistan, first in 2007-08 and later in 2012, when he served as a co-pilot gunner in an Apache attack helicopter.
"Mr. Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans," a senior Taliban member wrote on Twitter, responding to a comment from the Duke of Sussex in his book that compared the people he killed to chess pieces.
Neither proud nor ashamed
"It wasn't a statistic that filled me with pride, but nor did it leave me ashamed," Harry wrote, according to the Spanish version of the book, which mistakenly went on sale ahead of its official release on Tuesday.
"When I found myself plunged in the heat and confusion of combat, I didn't think of those 25 as people," he wrote. "They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bad people eliminated before they could kill Good people."
Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesperson for the Taliban's Foreign Affairs Ministry, called Harry's comments "a microcosm of the trauma experienced by Afghans at the hands of occupation forces, who murdered innocents without any accountability."
Haqqani added to his condemnation, saying "I don't expect that the [International Criminal Court] ICC will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind for you."
The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021, riding a wave of increasing violence against the civilian government supported by the US and its allies.
The ultraconservative militant group promised to reign in some of its more extremist policies but has consistently gone back on these promises. In December, they banned women from attending university.
Book of revelations
The book, "Spare," is a departure from the royal family's normally tight grip on private information.
It follows Harry's decision to give up his royal role and duties along with his wife, the US actress Meghan Markle, in 2020.
The book reportedly also describes moments of conflict — including allegedly violent clashes — with his brother, Prince William, heir to the British throne, as well as Harry's experience taking drugs and how he lost his virginity.
The prince served in the British military for 10 years, reaching the rank of captain.
He said his justification for going to Afghanistan and fighting was the memory of the 9/11 attacks and his experience of talking with the families of the victims.
ab/aw (Reuters, AFP)