Taliban targets Prince Harry

The Taliban said yesterday it was determined to kill Britain’s Prince Harry, serving in Afghanistan four years after his previous deployment was cut short over security concerns.

A militia spokesman said the group had a “high-value plan” to attack the third in line to the British throne in southern province Helmand, one of the toughest battlefields in the 10-year war. “We will do our best to kill Prince Harry and Britain’s other troops based in Helmand,” the spokesman, who gave his name as Zabihullah Mujahid, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The 27-year-old Apache helicopter pilot, who hit the headlines last month after he was photographed naked at a party in Las Vegas, will spend four months based at the heavily fortified Camp Bastion in Helmand.

Britain says Harry’s squadron “will provide surveillance, deterrence and, when required, close combat attack capabilities as well as escort duties for other aircraft”.

In 2008, the royal was hastily withdrawn from Afghanistan when a news blackout surrounding his deployment, was broken.