The royal’s admission that he killed 25 people while serving in Afghanistan was compared to removing “chess pieces” from a board, which the Taliban slammed on Friday.
On January 10, the highly personal Harry Potter book “Spare” went on sale in Spain a few days before its global release.
It reveals the extent of the conflict that exists between the prince and his brother William, the heir to the throne, as well as other details, such as his use of drugs and the manner in which he lost his virginity.
1/3- Mr. Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return. Among the killers of Afghans, not many have your decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes. pic.twitter.com/zjDwoDmCN1
— Anas Haqqani(انس حقاني) (@AnasHaqqani313) January 6, 2023
The 38-year-old describes, in one section, his two tours of Afghanistan—one as a forward air controller in 2007-08 and another as a co-pilot gunner in Apache attack helicopters in 2012—and the number of people he had killed during those tours.
According to the Spanish translation of the book, Harry wrote, “It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride nor did it leave me ashamed.” I didn’t think of those 25 as people when I found myself in the heat and confusion of the battle.
“They were pieces removed from the board of chess,” they said. “Bad people were killed before they could kill good people.”
Senior Taliban leader Anas Haqqani criticized the Duke of Sussex for his remarks, claiming that the Afghans Harry killed had families.
“Hello, Mr. Haqqani posted a tweet in which he said, “The ones you killed were not chess pieces; they were humans.” He said that Haqqani had committed “war crimes.”
“What you’ve said is true; Your military and political leaders used our innocent citizens as chess pieces.
“You were still defeated in that “game.”
3/3- I don't expect that the ICC will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind for you. But hopefully these atrocities will be remembered in the history of humanity.
— Anas Haqqani(انس حقاني) (@AnasHaqqani313) January 6, 2023
Harry’s remarks were also criticized by Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesperson for the Afghan foreign affairs ministry that is run by the Taliban.
He stated, “Prince Harry’s comments are a microcosm of the trauma experienced by Afghans at the hands of occupation forces who murdered innocents without any accountability. The western occupation of Afghanistan is truly an odious moment in human history.”
Harry was a captain during his ten years in the British military.
He served against the Taliban on two tours of duty, first as a forward air controller who initiated air strikes in 2007 and 2008 and then as an attack helicopter pilot in 2012 and 2013.
He was able to accurately count the number of people he had killed during his missions thanks to cameras on the nose of his Apache helicopter.
After meeting the families of the victims, he used the memory of the attacks on 9/11 to justify his actions.
He wrote in the book that fighting those responsible and those who sympathized with them were “enemies of humanity,” and that doing so was an act of vengeance for a crime against humanity.
Since then, Harry has expressed concern regarding his safety because of his royal status and time spent fighting militants.
Source: AFP
