Afghanistan's Taliban knew that Britain's Prince Harry had been deployed in their country to fight them and they had been gunning to get "an important chicken."
NEW YORK: Afghanistan's Taliban knew that Britain's Prince Harry had been deployed in their country to fight them and they had been gunning to get "an important chicken," a leading US magazine reported on Sunday.
A veteran Taliban field officer, identified as deputy commander Mullah Abdul Karim, told Newsweek magazine that he sent his men out hunting for the prince after receiving an urgent message from Taliban intelligence in late December or early January about Harry's possible secret deployment in southern Afghanistan.
Karim recalled getting an urgent message from Taliban intelligence in late December or early January that "an important chicken" had joined British troops in his area of operations. Karim promptly sent his men hunting for the prince.
"He is our special enemy," says Karim. "Our first option was to capture him as a prisoner, and the second, to kill him," the report said.
Fearing that the Taliban insurgents would specifically target Cornet Wales (the prince's military title) and his fellow soldiers if his presence in the battle zone were publicly revealed, the top British brass did everything possible to prevent leaks about his deployment on Decmber 14 to Helmand province.
The prince travelled around the province with his unit, says Karim, whose men once or twice reported possible sightings of Harry's armoured convoy in their area of operations, eastern Helmand's Sanguin district.
But Karim and his fighters never got close to their target, the report said.
The prince's Afghan tour of duty had been scheduled to last until April, but it ended abruptly Thursday after the Miami-based Web site Drudge Report revealed the prince's whereabouts. Less than a day later Britain's Ministry of Defence announced Harry's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The ministry said the prince had been working as a forward air controller, calling in fighter-bomber strikes against Taliban forces. Karim claims he heard the same thing from Afghans on the ground.
"He may be a prince, but he didn't have a prince's heart," says Karim. "He proved as cruel and brutal as other British soldiers, bombing and shelling innocent Afghans and Taliban."
However, US and British intelligence officials are highly skeptical about the Taliban commander's story, dismissing it as propaganda and "wishful thinking," the report said.
The officials say there's no evidence that the Taliban had any idea of Prince Harry's presence in Afghanistan before Matt Drudge put the story on the Web and set off a media stampede. The British press had agreed to an embargo on the story in exchange for journalistic access to the prince.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}