Harry ‘betrayed his Army colleagues’ by revealing he had killed 25 Taliban militants during combat tour of Afghanistan
PRINCE Harry was accused of betraying comrades by revealing he had killed 25 militants during a combat tour of Afghanistan.
Former Colonel Richard Kemp said the wayward heir’s comments in his memoir Spare were a “betrayal of the people he fought alongside”.
The former commander of troops in Afghanistan blasted the prince for saying that he didn’t see his Taliban victims as people.
Col Kemp said: “He is suggesting the British Army trains people, including him, not to see the enemy as human beings, which is very far from the truth.
“The Army is extremely careful to differentiate between innocent civilians and fighters on the battlefield.”
He also warned the revelations would increase threats to Harry’s safety – by inciting terrorists’ desires for revenge.
He said: “It undermines his personal security. He has shot himself in the foot.
“Fighting in Afghanistan, Harry gained a very strong reputation both in the Army and in the country.
“These comments will damage that reputation and he won’t be looked on in quite the same light, by people who thought highly of him before, including me.”
Harry’s hero Ben McBean – who lost an arm and leg in Afghanistan – has also been critical of the prince’s revelations.
The ex-Royal Marine said: “Love you Prince Harry but you need to shut up!
“Makes you wonder about the people he’s hanging around with. If they were good people somebody by now would have told him to stop.”
In his memoir, Harry said he gunned down Taliban militants when he flew Apache helicopters in southern Helmand Province in 2012.
He rewatched films of his kills from the gunship’s nose-mounted camera when he returned to base at Camp Bastion.
Harry said the technology meant: “I could always say precisely how many enemy combatants I’d killed”.
He wrote: “So my number: 25. It wasn’t a number that gave me any satisfaction. But neither was it a number that made me feel ashamed.
“In the heat and fog of combat, I didn’t think of those 25 as people. I’d been trained to ‘other-ize’ them.”
The MoD refused to comment on Harry’s claims he had killed 25 militants.
A spokesman said: “We do not comment on operational details for security reasons.”