Kabul: The Afghan Taliban said on Monday threatened to abduct or assassinate Britain’s Prince Harry, who arrived in Afghanistan last week to fly apache helicopters.
Talking to Reuters from an undisclosed location, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that “We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping.”
“We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him,” Mujahid added, declining to go into detail on what he dubbed the “Harry operations”.
The 27-year-old prince, who is third in line to the throne, took up his new role two weeks after he was photographed naked enjoying a party in Las Vegas.
Known in the military as Captain Wales, he first served in Afghanistan in 2008 as an on-ground air controller, but his tour was cut short when a news blackout, designed to protect him while on the front line, collapsed.
The Ministry of Defence has said the threat to Prince Harry’s life in Afghanistan was less severe in helicopters.
On Friday, Prince Harry began a four-month combat tour in Afghanistan as a gunner on an Apache attack helicopter, fresh from a vacation that included strip billiards in a Las Vegas hotel.
It was the second tour in Afghanistan for Harry, 27, who will start flying missions within 10 days in the country’s restive Helmand province, the British military said. In 2007-08, he served in Helmand as an air traffic controller.
Looking relaxed if slightly tired, Harry gave a thumbs-up Friday after a long journey on a troop carrier flight from England to Britain’s Camp Bastion, a sprawling desert base near the southern Afghan town of Lashkar Gah.
Capt. Harry Wales, as he is known in the military, wore his combat uniform and joined his 100-strong unit – the 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps.
Britain has around 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, mainly based in Helmand province, and has suffered 425 deaths since the start of operations there in 2001.
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