The Taliban-led Afghan government on Friday criticized Prince Harry after he said in excerpts from his memoirs that he killed 25 people while serving in a helicopter in Afghanistan, likening it to removing "chess pieces from the board".
Abdul Qahhar Balkhi, spokesman for the Taliban government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, criticized Prince Harry's remarks, saying, "The Western occupation of Afghanistan is truly an abhorrent moment in human history and Prince Harry's comments represent a microcosm of the painful experience that Afghans lived at the hands of the occupying forces who killed innocent people without no accountability."
The Afghan government spokesman, Bilal Karimi, also criticized the British prince, and said - in a tweet on Twitter - "These crimes are not exclusive to Harry, but rather that every occupied country has a history full of such crimes."
"Afghans will never forget the crimes of the occupiers, and they will always keep the flame of protecting their religion and country alive," he added.
In turn, Anas Haqqani, a high-ranking official in the Taliban, criticized the prince's remarks, saying, "Those who Harry killed are Afghans who have families."
And he addressed - in a tweet on Twitter - Harry, saying, "Mr. Harry, those whom you killed are not chess pieces, these were human beings," accusing the prince of committing "war crimes."
And he added, "The truth is as I presented it. Our innocent people were chess pieces in the eyes of your soldiers, military and political leaders. But it remains that you were defeated in that game."
It is noteworthy that Harry's autobiography, titled "Spare", was put up for sale in Spain before it was released globally on January 10, and reveals the depth of the rift between Prince Harry and his brother, heir to the throne, Prince William, and other confessions such as his drug use.
In one of the chapters of the book, the 38-year-old prince recounts his two periods of service in Afghanistan, the first when he was an advanced air control officer in 2007-2008, and the second in 2012 when he was a co-pilot responsible for directing fire on board Apache attack aircraft, as revealed by a number the people he killed.
"It was not a statistic that made me proud, but it also did not make me feel ashamed," Harry wrote, according to the Spanish version of the book.
And he added, "When I found myself in the midst of the flames and confusion of the battle, I did not think of these twenty-five as human beings."
"They were like chess pieces removed from the board. The bad guys were eliminated before they could kill the good guys," he added.
The publication of the book comes after Harry and his American wife, Megan, gave up royal duties in 2020 to move to California and start a new life.
Since then, the duo have lashed out at Windsor Castle and the British press.