UK's Prince Harry says he killed 25 people during combat missions in Afghanistan

UK’s Prince Harry has revealed that he killed 25 people during his stints in the British army in Afghanistan. 

Prince Harry served with the British army for ten years and did two tours of Afghanistan. He was an Apache helicopter pilot and flew on six missions that resulted in "the taking of human lives", according to his autobiography Spare, as quoted by The Telegraph. 

He added that he did not view the 25 as people, instead seeing them as "chess pieces" that had been removed from the board. 

Prince Harry reveals in his memoir “Spare” he killed 25 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and thought of them as “chess pieces taken off the board”. pic.twitter.com/wzSPrpukv2

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) January 5, 2023

"It’s not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me," he said in his autobiography, as quoted by the British daily.

This is the first time Prince Harry has revealed how many people he killed during his time with the army. 

The 38-year-old prince is eighth in line to the British throne. In 2020 he and his wife Meghan stepped down from their royal duties and have since engaged in a public feud with other members of the royal family.

In Spare, Prince Harry alleges that his brother Prince William punched him and knocked him to the ground during an argument.

Harry has long been regarded as a target for attacks by terror groups, both for his status as a senior member of the royal family and for his deployment in Afghanistan. 

UK forces were deployed in Afghanistan in 2003 as part of a US and NATO-led coalition against the Taliban following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and other targets in the United States in 2001. 

British troops formally left Afghanistan after over a decade in 2014, while the last US US troops departed in August 2021, just as the Taliban toppled the NATO-backed Afghan government and regained control of the country.