'The truth is what you’ve said; Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers'
The Taliban have accused Prince Harry of committing war crimes after the royal revealed he'd
killed 25 people whilst serving in Afghanistan.
In his upcoming memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex reveals that he did not think of the insurgents he killed "as people" but instead 'chess pieces' he had taken off the board.
He said it was "not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me."
The royal said he saw insurgents as “baddies eliminated before they could kill goodies”, adding it is not possible to kill someone “if you see them as a person”, but that Army had “trained me to ‘other’ them and they had trained me well.”
On his second tour of Afghanistan, he was able to say “with exactness how many enemy combatants" he had killed thanks to the technology.
Now, a senior
Taliban leader has responded on social media to Harry's words, accusing him of "war crimes."
Anas Haqqani 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. The truth is what you’ve said; Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that game of white & black square."
https://twitter.com/AnasHaqqani313/status/1611315062018543616
"I don't expect that the ICC will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind for you. But hopefully these atrocities will be remembered in the history of humanity."
In summer 2021, the
Taliban regained control of
Afghanistan following the withdrawal of western troops from the country.
Since then they have
rolled back human rights in the country, and reintroduced
oppressive and extreme laws against women.
Prince Harry was deployed as a forward air controller in Helmand province during his first tour of duty in 2007-08, which was cut short when foreign news organisations breached a news blackout that had been agreed with the British media.
In 2012, after learning to fly Apache helicopters, he was deployed to Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan with the Army Air Corps, staying for 20 weeks. He said at the time that killing insurgents was part of his job, and that “we fire when we have to, take a life to save a life”.
The Duke of Sussex's upcoming autobiography is due for publication in the UK on January 10.
