In one section,the 38-year-oldrecounts his two tours of Afghanistan,first as a forward air controller in 2007-08,and again in 2012,when he was a co-pilot gunner in Apache attack helicopters,and states the number of people he killed.
“It wasn’t a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it leave me ashamed,” Harry wrote,according to the Spanish version of the book. “When I found myself plunged in the heat and confusion of combat,I didn’t think of those 25 as people.
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“They were chess pieces removed from the board,Bad people eliminated before they could kill Good people.”
His decision to put a number on those he killed,and the comparison to chess pieces,drew outrage from the Taliban,and concern from British veterans.
Spokesperson for the Taliban-led Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry,Abdul Qahar Balkhi,said:“The Western occupation of Afghanistan is truly an odious moment in human history and comments by Prince Harry is a microcosm of the trauma experienced by Afghans at the hands of occupation forces who murdered innocents without any accountability.”
Prominent Taliban member Anas Haqqani wrote on Twitter:“Mr. Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces,they were humans;they had families who were waiting for their return.”