This picture taken on October 31, 2012 shows Britain’s Prince Harry making his early morning pre-flight checks on the British controlled flight-line at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where he was serving as an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps.
John Stillwell | Afp | Getty Images
The early release of Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir “Spare” is triggering anger from plenty of various sources, from loyal monarchy supporters to television pundits and extraordinary Brits — and most recently, the Taliban.
The highly-anticipated book, written within the years after Harry and his wife Meghan Markle left their roles within the British royal family, was by accident placed on sale in Spain several days before its official release date.
Amongst the various controversial revelations within the memoir is Harry’s disclosure that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while on deployment in Afghanistan with the British Army.
In response to excerpts of the book cited by Sky News, which has obtained a replica, Harry said he didn’t view the fighters as “people” but as an alternative as “chess pieces” that he was removing from the board.
“It was not something that filled me with satisfaction, but I used to be not ashamed either,” the prince wrote. CNBC has not seen or been in a position to obtain a replica of the book.
Taliban leader Anas Haqqani hit back on the remarks on Twitter, writing: “Mr. Harry! Those you killed weren’t chess pieces, they were humans; they’d families who were waiting for his or her return. Among the many killers of Afghans, not many have your decency to disclose their conscience and confess to their war crimes.”
Haqqani added, “Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that ‘game’ of white & black ‘square’.”
The Taliban returned to full power over Afghanistan when the U.S. withdrew its last troops from the country in August of 2021. It has since re-imposed a hyper-conservative Islamic theocracy on the country, imposing violent punishments on dissenters and banning women from higher education, amongst other human rights abuses.
Prince Harry patrols the deserted town of Garmisir on January 2, 2008 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
John Stillwell | Anwar Hussein Collection/rota | Wireimage | Getty Images
Harry served within the British Army for 10 years, obtaining the rank of captain. He served two tours in Afghanistan, the primary in 2007-2008 as a forward air controller, and later in 2012-2013 as an attack helicopter pilot.
The Taliban leader is not the just one indignant about Harry’s comments; the news prompted backlash from former members of the British military as well, who largely live by a culture of not openly speaking or bragging about lives they’ve taken during combat.
“Love you #PrinceHarry but it’s worthwhile to shut up!” Ben McBean, a former Royal Marine who served with Harry in Afghanistan, wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “Makes you wonder the people he’s hanging around with. If it was good people someone by now would have told him to stop.”
One former senior army officer who led British forces in Afghanistan in 2003, Col. Richard Kemp, described Harry’s comments as “ill-judged” and potentially even dangerous.
Harry’s words “were probably ill-judged for 2 reasons,” Kemp said in an interview with Sky News. “One is his suggestion that he killed 25 people could have reincited those individuals who wish him harm.”
Prince Harry sits within the front cockpit of an Apache helicopter on the British controlled flight-line in Camp Bastion on October 31, 2012 in Afghanistan. Prince Harry served as an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps, from September 2012 for 4 months until January 2013.
John Stillwell | Wpa Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The retired colonel added: “The opposite problem I discovered together with his comments was that he characterised the British Army principally as having trained him and other soldiers to see his enemy as lower than human, just as chess pieces on a board to be swiped off, which isn’t the case. It’s the alternative of the case.”
He warned that such comments could “incite some people to try an attack on British soldiers anywhere on the planet.”
Kensington Palace, which represents Prince William, and Buckingham Palace which represents King Charles III, have up to now declined to comment on the book and any of its claims. CNBC has reached out to a representative for Prince Harry for comment.
