Taliban blasts Harry for Afghan killings

In his memoir, however, the British Prince has admitted that he was neither proud nor ashamed of whatever he did to those 25 people.

New Delhi, Jan 7: Taliban has come heavily upon Prince Harry for his disclosure that he killed 25 people during his stay in Afghanistan as a British soldier. The Duke of Sussex, Harry has received mixed reactions as this information came out from his memoir 'Spare'. Not just the Taliban leaders have criticized it and called it a war crime, even some British intellectuals have condemned it.

For all those who don't know, Prince Harry was deployed in Afghanistan as a British soldier where he worked as a forward air controller. Later on he also worked as a helicopter pilot that is where according to him he shot dead 25 Afghans like chess pieces removed from the board. The memoir is set to further damage the relations between Taliban-led Afghanistan and Britain.

In the memoir, however, Harry has admitted that he was neither proud nor ashamed of whatever he did to those people. According to Reuters, Harry admits that when he found himself plunged in the heat and confusion of combat he didn't think of those 25 as people.

ICC is 'deaf & blind'

Reacting to what has come from Prince Harry's memoir, a senior Taliban aide Anas Haqqani resorted to Twitter and said that although it is clear that there was a crime he does not expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to act upon it. He Tweeted: "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."

What Harry has said has its own drawbacks but has definitely given fodder to Taliban as the organization has jumped over it. Now, it is utilizing the excerpts from the book to milk Afghans' sentiments. Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson for the Taliban-led Afghan foreign affairs ministry, jumped over and not just criticized Harry's comments but also forgot to call it a traumatic experience.

He was quoted saying that the western occupation of Afghanistan is truly an odious moment in human history and comments by Prince Harry are a microcosm of the trauma experienced by Afghans. The spokesperson tried to associate Harry's statement with the human rights violations in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, there has not been an official reaction from the British ministry of defence on the issue.

However, Colonel Richard Kemp, a former Army commander in Afghanistan, has said that the whole statement seems to be misleading.

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