Kabul

- The family of the Afghan Abdul Wajid Khan had just finished their dinner at their home in the lower village of Gereshk district in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, when British planes attacked it in 2013, killing most of its members and injuring the rest.

10 years after the incident, Khan (52 years old) sits with his son Abdul Jalil, the only survivor of the massacre, who was 3 years old at the time.

And the father - while flipping through pictures of 7 members of his family, who are his wife, daughter and 5 male children - told Al-Jazeera Net the story of targeting his house.

Khan says that British tanks and former Afghan forces came at noon from the neighboring Sangin district, and during their movement, explosive devices planted on both sides of the road exploded, after which planes bombed the lower village in the Krishk district, prompting the people to flee, "most of them were my relatives."

He added, "When we sat down to dinner, we heard the whirring of planes again, and shortly after, my house was bombed, and I lost my wife and children in the blink of an eye. In the morning, the British forces issued a statement saying that Prince Harry had completed his military mission with distinction."

After Prince Harry's statements regarding his participation in the war on Afghanistan, Abdul Wajid Khan calls on the International Criminal Court to investigate the results of the British forces' operations in Helmand, and calls on the United Kingdom to compensate and apologize to the Afghan families of the victims who fell in its military operations.

Khan told Al-Jazeera Net, "The International Tribunal must do justice to us. Prince Harry killed unarmed civilians, and there were no Taliban fighters among us. I do not know how Harry justified his action, then what made him remind us of our tragedies after 10 years?"

Local officials in Helmand are calling for international courts to investigate "war crimes" they say British forces committed during their presence in Afghanistan.

A number of the people of the state in the south of the country are also calling on Britain to pay financial compensation for "the involvement of Prince Harry and the British forces" in the killing of Afghans during their mission in Helmand province in particular.

Children and the disabled in what remains of a village in Helmand Province, whose people say that British aircraft bombed it in 2013 (Al-Jazeera)

Secret missions and Apache

Prince Harry's statements about his participation in the war in Afghanistan twice aroused the resentment and anger of the British army, which may make him a target for "terrorist" organizations, according to statements by British officials.

Prince Harry participated in a secret 10-week mission to Afghanistan in 2008, but when the news leaked to the media, the British Ministry of Defense returned him to the United Kingdom for security reasons.

Harry came to Afghanistan twice, the first between 2007 and 2008, and the other between 2012 and 2013, and he said in his memoirs under the title "Spare" or "reserve" that he flew when he was an Apache helicopter pilot on 6 military missions in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan.

"drunk wolf"

In turn, the former spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, Dawlat Waziri, told Al-Jazeera Net that Prince Harry "was a pilot of an Apache plane, and anyone who saw the Apache in Afghanistan knows that it is a huge killing machine. Whoever was driving it must have killed people, because this machine was made to kill." ".

For his part, the leader of the Islamic Party, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, described Prince Harry as a "drunk wolf."

Hekmatyar told Al-Jazeera Net that he "came to hunt down the innocent Afghans, and he did in Helmand what humanity condemns, and what is worse than that is that he admits his heinous act."

Zabihullah Mujahid: We demand an international investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan (Al-Jazeera)

'They enjoy spilling Afghan blood'

The current Afghan government - led by the Taliban - and the people of Helmand Province agree that Prince Harry was involved in the killing of their children.

Officials say that all the victims were civilians, and when the military committee reviewed the "Islamic Emirate" (the Taliban movement) at that time, it did not find that its gunmen were killed in an air strike, as the British forces announced at the time.

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Al-Jazeera Net, "We demand an international investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan. Harry's confession of committing this crime shows the true face of the West and its invading armies."

He added, "Britain and European countries pay lip service to human rights and justice, and when it comes to the Third World, we do not hear any initiative or sympathy."

Mujahid says, "Harry and his ilk enjoy shedding Afghan blood, and when you see the Afghan villages and countryside in Helmand province, you will know the meaning of the scorched earth policy."


Obstacles to international investigation

Political analysts and legal experts believe that the demand for an international investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan was the responsibility of the previous Afghan governments, and that they knew the course of events in the smallest details, especially what happened in 3 districts, which are "Marjah, Sangin, and Musa Qala" in Helmand Province.

Strategic researcher Tariq Farhadi told Al-Jazeera Net, "The United Kingdom will say before the court - if it is held - that the previous Afghan government was a partner with us and did not demand anything, and this means that it approved everything that the British forces did in Afghanistan."

Prince Harry's statements sparked outrage among the Afghans, and the pioneers of social networking sites criticized his confession to the killing of 25 Afghans, and considered his statements "an additive to the wounds," and a number of others said that he had confessed to what he had done.

Some called on the Taliban to "learn the lesson" and "admit to targeting and killing civilians during its suicide attacks throughout Afghanistan," which poses great obstacles to bringing the case against the United Kingdom and Prince Harry at the International Criminal Court.

"I do not think that the international court will hear from the Taliban and accept a file in this regard, and it is accused of many things by the court," the Afghan researcher in international law, Abdul Sattar Saadat, told Al-Jazeera Net.

In addition, Saadat mentions that "the Ministers of Interior, Yunus Qanuni and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah Abdullah, in Karzai's first government signed a judicial immunity agreement with foreign forces - especially the Americans - so the United States and European countries did not leave a loophole in their war in Afghanistan but found a solution for it."

However, the most important major obstacle to transferring the case against Prince Harry and Britain to international courts - according to the researcher in international law - is the lack of recognition of the Taliban government, so it will not be dealt with by any international institution.

What remains of an Afghan village abandoned more than 10 years ago due to the bombing of British forces in Helmand Province (Al-Jazeera)

Britain in Afghanistan

Britain's first wars in Afghanistan go back to 1839, when its forces attacked for the first time the state of Kandahar and took control of it, then headed to Kabul and the city of Jalalabad, and controlled it for 3 years before withdrawing in 1842 to India.

After 36 years, the second British-Afghan war began in 1878, then the English forces signed an agreement with Prince Abdul Rahman, and after 3 years withdrew to India again.

The third war came during the reign of Prince Amanullah, who rejected his grandfather's agreement with the British and declared war on them, and the British forces bombed the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, so the prince was forced to sit with the British, and in 1919 Afghanistan gained its independence according to the Rawalpindi Agreement.

After the start of the war on Afghanistan following the events of September 11, 2001, British forces settled in the south of the country in 2006, especially in Helmand Province.