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Iranian officials have accused Prince Harry of committing 'war crimes' following the release of his memoir Spare.
The Iran Foreign Ministry has condemned the Duke of Sussex after he revealed he killed 25 suspected Taliban insurgents during his two operational tours in Afghanistan.
The Ministry wrote: “The British regime, whose royal family member, sees the killing of 25 innocent people as removal of chess pieces and has no regrets over the issue, and those who turn a blind eye to this war crime, are in no position to preach others on human rights.”
The British regime, whose royal family member, sees the killing of 25 innocent people as removal of chess pieces and has no regrets over the issue, and those who turn a blind eye to this war crime, are in no position to preach others on human rights.
— Iran Foreign Ministry 🇮🇷 (@IRIMFA_EN) January 17, 2023
In his tell-all memoir, Harry said the number of people he killed doesn’t ‘embarrass’ him, nor does it ‘satisfy’ him.
“I felt it vital never to shy away from that number,” he wrote.
He added: “While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn’t think of those twenty-five as people. You can’t kill people if you think of them as people.
“You can’t really harm people if you think of them as people.
"They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods.
"I’d been trained to ‘other-ize’ them, trained well.”
However, this excerpt has sparked outrage.
Arash Azizzada, the co-founder of NGO Afghans For A Better Tomorrow, told Business Insider that he found the Prince's remarks to be a shock.
He said: "It is shocking yet unsurprising to hear Prince Harry speak so flippantly about his military service in Afghanistan, especially considering the UK's 20-year-long occupation helped bring the Taliban back to power last summer.
“His inhumane rhetoric is why Afghans gave born the brunt of war for so long and at such a high cost.”
Rather than bragging about his military exploits, Azizzada believes the Royal should urge his native country to implement the Afghan resettlement scheme, which would help those vulnerable in the war-torn country rebuild a life in the UK.
He added: “The number of folks resettled by the UK government currently stands at zero, despite the promise of 20,000 slots.
"Until that happens, Afghans are reluctant to listen to his experiences in a war that has come at an unspeakable cost for Afghans."
Prince Harry served in the British Army for a decade, with two tours. One spanned from 2007 to 2008 and the other from 2012 to 2013.
During his time, he rose to the rank of Captain in 2011 and served as an Apache Aircraft commander.
He retired from the service in 2015.
Featured Image Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Live News. PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: News, World News, Prince Harry, Politics, Army
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