LONDON: Prince Harry has acknowledged killing 25 people during his time as an Apache helicopter pilot in Afghanistan, British media reported Thursday, quoting a soon-to-be-published autobiography.
The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex served two tours of duty against the Taliban, first as a forward air controller calling in airstrikes in 2007-2008, then flying the attack helicopter in 2012-2013.
In the book “Spare,” due out next week, he said he undertook six missions as a pilot that led to him “taking human lives,” the Daily Telegraph reported.
He said he was neither proud nor ashamed of doing so and described eliminating the targets as like removing “chess pieces” from a board.
Harry served for 10 years in the British Army, rising to the rank of captain, and has described his time in the military as his formative years.
His first tour was conducted under a strict news blackout for security reasons, which was agreed by British media outlets. He was forced to return home when a foreign publication broke the embargo.
He has never publicly discussed how many Taliban he killed.
Video cameras mounted on the nose of his Apache helicopter enabled him to assess his missions — and determine with certainty how many he had killed.
“My number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,” he wrote.
He justified his actions because of his memory of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, and after meeting families of the victims.
Those responsible and their sympathizers were “enemies of humanity” and fighting them was an act of vengeance for a crime against humanity, he added.
Harry has since voiced concern about his security, not just because of his royal status but also because of his time fighting extremists.
The Telegraph quoted the extracts from the Spanish version of the autobiography it obtained after mistakenly being put on sale in bookshops on Thursday before being withdrawn.
Prince Harry says he killed 25 in Afghanistan: Media
https://arab.news/p3azy
Prince Harry says he killed 25 in Afghanistan: Media
- The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex served two tours of duty against the Taliban
- He said he was neither proud nor ashamed of doing so and described eliminating the targets as like removing “chess pieces” from a board
Bangladesh’s religio-political party open to unity govt
- Opinion polls suggest that Jamaat-e-Islami will finish a close second to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the first election it has contested in nearly 17 years
DHAKA: A once-banned Bangladeshi religio-political party, poised for its strongest electoral showing in February’s parliamentary vote, is open to joining a unity government and has held talks with several parties, its chief said.
Opinion polls suggest that Jamaat-e-Islami will finish a close second to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the first election it has contested in nearly 17 years as it marks a return to mainstream politics in the predominantly Muslim nation of 175 million.
Jamaat last held power between 2001 and 2006 as a junior coalition partner with the BNP and is open to working with it again.
“We want to see a stable nation for at least five years. If the parties come together, we’ll run the government together,” Jamaat chief Shafiqur Rahman said in an interview at his office in a residential area in Dhaka, days after the party created a buzz by securing a tie-up with a Gen-Z party.
Rahman said anti-corruption must be a shared agenda for any unity government.
The prime minister will come from the party winning the most seats in the Feb. 12 election, he added. If Jamaat wins the most seats, the party will decide whether he himself would be a candidate, Rahman said.
The party’s resurgence follows the ousting of long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a youth-led uprising in August 2024.
Rahman said Hasina’s continued stay in India after fleeing Dhaka was a concern, as ties between the two countries have hit their lowest point in decades since her downfall.
Asked about Jamaat’s historical closeness to Pakistan, Rahman said: “We maintain relations in a balanced way with all.”
He said any government that includes Jamaat would “not feel comfortable” with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who was elected unopposed with the Awami League’s backing in 2023.
