\u2018Salt in wounds\u2019
\nHarry says he killed 25 people, \u2018chess pieces\u2019 taken off the board
\n KABUL
\nA mixture of anger, pain, and confusion has been felt by Afghans on hearing Prince Harry\u2019s admission of killing more than two dozen people while on military duty in Afghanistan.
\nThe British royal served in Afghanistan, first as a forward air controller in 2007-08 and in 2012-13 when he was an Apache attack helicopter co-pilot gunner in the US-led NATO campaign against the Taliban.
\nIn his memoir \u201cSpare,\u201d from which the British media quoted on Friday prior to its global launch next week, the prince said he had killed 25 Taliban fighters, describing them as \u201cchess pieces taken off the board, bad guys eliminated before they kill good guys.\u201d
\nThe comment provoked outrage from Afghanistan\u2019s current rulers, the Taliban, who seized power when foreign troops withdrew in August 2021.
\n\u201cThe ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return,\u201d prominent Taliban member Anas Haqqani said on Twitter.
\nSuhail Shaheen, Taliban government spokesperson and permanent representative-designate to the UN, issued a statement accusing Prince Harry of being on the side of invaders and of committing crimes against humanity.
\nPrince Harry\u2019s words also reopened the wounds of those who lost family members during 20 years of war that killed more than 176,000 Afghans.
\n\u201cHearing such news is like putting salt in our wounds. It\u2019s not good, there is no benefit in doing so,\u201d said Shaheen Fidaee, a resident of Kabul province, whose grandmother and uncle were killed during raids by foreign troops.
\n\u201cWe suffered a lot of victims and hardship in the last two decades.\u201d
\nAkmal Khan, a social activist, saw Prince Harry\u2019s admission of killing as just a \u201csmall example\u201d of crimes by foreign troops in Afghanistan.
\n\u201cWe can say hundreds of other similar incidents were committed by them across Afghanistan in the past two decades,\u201d he told Arab News.
\nKhan added the remarks in the royal\u2019s memoir were a \u201chuge insult to the entire Afghan nation.\u201d
\nNoor Mohammad, a street vendor in Kabul city, said: \u201cHe himself (Prince Harry) claimed he killed our countrymen as chess pieces.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s so painful for us to be hearing such news.\u201d
\nFor Wahidullah, a shop owner in the Afghan capital, Prince Harry had \u201cinsulted all humans and the Afghan nation.\u201d
\nWahidullah, along with Khan and Mohammad, told Arab News that the royal should face prosecution from the international authorities.
\nBut some believe he was taking part in a military mission and should not be judged until all the circumstances are clear.
\n\u201cThe statement given by the UK\u2019s Prince Harry is about incidents 10 years ago and during that period of war we had thousands of casualties in Afghanistan,\u201d said Arzo Joya, who worked at an NGO before the Taliban banned women from such work in December.
\nShe was surprised, however, that Prince Harry remembered the number of those he had killed.
\n\u201cWe should leave this issue for the future,\u201d she said, \u201cuntil we get to know how he had committed this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Salt in wounds\u2019 Harry says he killed 25 people, \u2018chess pieces\u2019 taken off the board KABUL A mixture of anger, pain, and confusion has been felt by Afghans on hearing Prince Harry\u2019s admission of killing more than two dozen people while on military duty in Afghanistan. The British royal served in Afghanistan, first as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-306150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n