Prince Harry broke the news in his autobiographical memoir "Spare" released on the 10th of this month that he had annihilated 25 Taliban fighters while serving as a gunship machine gunner in Afghanistan, and also claimed that killing these 25 people was just "removing pawns on the chessboard" for him, which not only triggered strong criticism from the British military, bluntly saying that its disclosure discredited the image of the British army, and even the Afghan Taliban accused Harry of war crimes. Iran, which recently executed former deputy defense minister Alireza Akbari, has even more scolded Britain, saying that it is not qualified to talk about "human rights".
According to the British "Mirror" and "Daily Mail", Prince Harry's new book reveals that he annihilated 25 Taliban fighters while serving as a machine gunner for AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships in Afghanistan, adding that he will not be proud of this and will not be ashamed, because these 25 people are "just pawns removed on the chessboard, and the bad guys are eliminated before they can kill the good guys."
Tim Collins, a retired Northern Ireland colonel in the British Army who famously delivered a pre-war speech in Iraq in 2003, angrily criticized the royal family: "Harry has now turned around and betrayed and destroyed his other home, which is the British military... His remarks threaten the safety of former colleagues overseas."
Former Army Colonel Richard Kemp, awarded the British Empire Order of Valor, called Harry's remarks "misunderstood" and said in response to his "pawn talk" that British soldiers did not regard their targets as "inferior" as Harry. Former national security adviser Kim Darroch also warned Harry not to release his killing data. Meanwhile, former Royal Marine commando Ben McBean said Harry's revelations broke "unwritten rules".
Harry's remarks not only drew criticism from the British military and media, but even Anas Haqqani, a senior leader of the Afghan Taliban, slammed it on Twitter: "Harry! Those you kill are humans, not pawns! They are innocent Afghans with families, but they have become pawns in the eyes of Westerners. However, the pawns have now taken over the board again. I don't expect the International Criminal Court to summon you, or any human rights organization to condemn you, because the crimes they commit against Westerners will only deaf and dumb!"
In an earlier interview with Al Jazeera, Haqqani pointed out that the 25 soldiers mentioned by Prince Harry were actually ordinary civilians, because the fighters in Helmand Province did not report any casualties that day. He added that Prince Harry's actions are just a microcosm of the many war crimes committed by Western troops in Afghanistan during their 20 years.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi also criticized that "the occupation of Afghanistan by Western countries is a terrible moment in human history, and Prince Harry's remarks are only part of the tragedy experienced by Afghans under the occupation of the Western coalition." These soldiers kill innocent people so brutally without being responsible."
Iran has also been criticized by Britain for the execution of Akbari in recent days, and the former deputy defense minister with dual British and Iranian citizenship was brought to justice by Tehran on suspicion of espionage. The Iranian authorities also responded to the UK with Harry's cold-blooded remarks, saying that it was not qualified to talk about "human rights", "The British royal family compared the killing of 25 innocent people to the removal of pawns, and bragged about showing off, these countries that turn a blind eye to war crimes are not qualified to promote human rights values."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would not comment on the appropriateness of Prince Harry's claim that Prince Harry killed 25 people, but he was very grateful to Britain's armed forces. As for the spokesman of the British Ministry of Defence, he said to Harry's "pawn talk": "For security reasons, we do not comment on the details of the operation."