Prince Harry used his Megxit memoir ‘Spare’ to claim he had killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan.
The Duke of Sussex has been slammed for ‘giving ammunition’ to Iran after he revealed his Taliban kill count.
Harry revealed in his book that he had killed 25 Taliban fighters.
To the disappointment of many former colleagues and military commanders, the prince chose to reveal his personal tally of enemies accounted for.
He also described dehumanising his opponents on the battlefield, thinking of them as ‘chess pieces’ who needed removing ‘from the board’, rather than human beings.
Some went further to call him a ‘stupid boy’ and told to ‘take responsibility’ as Tehran used his confession to defend its hanging of a British-Iranian citizen.
Alireza Akbari, 61, was executed over the weekend amid allegations he was working as a spy. Now, Iran has defended the hanging by claiming Britain was ‘in no position to preach’ on human rights following the 38-year-old admission in ‘Spare’.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry replied: ‘The British regime, whose Royal Family member sees the killing of 25 people innocent people as the removal of chess pieces and has no regrets over the issue, and those who turn a blind eye to a war crime, are in no position to preach to others on human rights.’
The replies come after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had described Mr Akbari’s hanging as a ‘callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime’.
Following Tehran’s response to Britain’s condemnation, leading figures in the Armed Forces took aim at Prince Harry.
Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West told The Sun: ‘Harry was a stupid boy saying what he said but there is no equivalence with what Iran is doing.’
Former Royal Navy commander Rear Admiral Chris Parry claimed: ‘The Iranians are using him for propaganda purposes.
‘Despite the clumsy words by Prince Harry, it is highly duplicitous to claim equivalence between the lawful killing of combatants in warfare and a show-trial and political murder by a dictatorial regime.”
Colonel Richard Kemp, a former UK military commander in Afghanistan, added: ‘Harry should take full responsibility for giving ammunition to the murderous Iranian regime’s propaganda machine.
‘While all decent people will reject Iran’s lies, many of their supporters will be strengthened by the ayatollahs’ exploitation of the duke’s ill-judged comments.’
