Prince Harry claims he killed 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan
London, Jan 6 (EFE).- Prince Harry has claimed he killed 25 Taliban fighters during his deployment to Afghanistan as a helicopter pilot for the British military, according to extracts of his forthcoming autobiography.
The autobiography, titled Spare, was due for release on January 10 but sections have been leaked by the press and the Spanish language version was also put on sale in Spain early by error, before it was swiftly withdrawn from shelves.
Harry’s detailed accounts of life in the British royal family and his strained relationship with his brother Prince William and his father, King Charles III, have already sparked a fiery media debate in the United Kingdom.
One of his latest revelations relates to his time in the military, and more specifically his deployment to Afghanistan in 2012/13.
In Spare, Harry says he took part in six missions that all resulted in the “taking of human lives.” He writes he is neither proud nor ashamed of that fact, adding he knew “with exactness” how many people he killed.
“And it seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number. So my number is 25. It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me,” Harry, 38, writes in his memoir.
The details of his time in the army have raised questions about security threats in the British press.
Harry served in the army for 10 years, rising to the rank of captain.
Other revelations in his autobiography include accounts of teenage drug use and his consultation with a woman with “powers” to contact his late mother Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, when Harry was 12.
In the memoir, Harry says he and his brother William asked their father not to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Harry also alleges in his new book that he was physically attacked by William in 2019 during an argument about his wife, American actress Meghan Markle, The Guardian reported.
Prince Harry and Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and became financially independent.
The title of Harry’s book, Spare, plays on a saying in royal and aristocratic circles that the first son is the heir and the second the spare in case anything should happen to the first.
In excerpts from his book published by The Guardian, Harry says that his father, now King Charles III, told his mother, Princess Diana, on the day of his birth: “Wonderful! Now you’ve given me an heir and a spare – my work is done.”
Charles ascended to the throne in September 2021 following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
vg/jt
