Harry forced out of war zone

Published on Friday 29 February 2008 21:45

PRINCE Harry left Afghanistan late last night after being pulled out of his front-line deployment in Helmand Province, as members of jihadist internet forums urged the Taleban to "slaughter" the 23-year-old.

His departure followed a leak by foreign media of his front-line role in Helmand province over the past ten weeks.

A spokesman for the MoD said it had to take into account his welfare and that of his fellow servicemen and women.

Intelligence picked up a series of specific threats to Prince Harry and his comrades after details of his deployment were published on a US website, the Drudge Report, and it was feared his presence could have increased the tempo of Taleban attacks on British forces.

As the news became public on Thursday, the MoD released pictures showing Prince Harry in action as a battlefield air-controller and fighting with a machine-gun.

In a statement, the ministry said the fact some elements of the foreign media had chosen to report his whereabouts was "regrettable", but it had always been aware of such a possibility, and had contingency plans.

Chief of the defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, took the decision to fly Harry out after discussions with the head of the army, General Sir Richard Dannatt.

The prince boarded a UK-bound troop transport plane last night after an "emergency extraction" ordered by Sir Jock.

He was picked up at a grid reference in the desert where he had been on manoeuvres with a tank squadron, and flown to a Nato base to join his flight.

The prince was said to be angered by the latest developments, following the cancellation of his planned tour of duty in Iraq last year when his security was compromised by publicity. But royal observers believe he will receive a hero's welcome from the British public, with tributes led by the Queen. She said her grandson had performed "a good job in a very difficult climate".

Harry is expected to fly into an RAF base this morning in a low-key arrival. Sir Jock said: "This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier."

It had emerged that contributors to Al-Ekhlaas and Al-Hesbah, two password-protected internet forums affiliated to al-Qaeda, spoke of killing Harry, as a high-value target for the Mujahideen. One member of Al-Ekhlaas wrote: "Nothing will break the heart of his grandmother but only if she loses him. My dear brothers in Allah, carry on provoking to kidnap this precious infidel."

A poster to Al-Hesbah, meanwhile, stated: "If he was not withdrawn, his neck would have been closer to the knife than at any other time."

And last night radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammad warned Harry's role in the conflict could provoke new terror attacks on Britain. Speaking from Lebanon, he said: "The Muslim community in Britain will be upset by it and there may be more people who go out of control.

"They may use Prince Harry to recruit some people and commit another attack."

Harry conceded in an interview filmed last week that when he returned to Britain, he could become a "top target" for Islamic terrorists.

A Blues and Royals "cornet" or second lieutenant, he has spent the past ten weeks working as a battlefield air-controller and Spartan reconnaissance vehicle commander across some of the troubled province's most dangerous spots. Now that he has been safely withdrawn, it can be reported that until this week, he was operating with a squadron of light tanks in the desert outside the former Taleban stronghold of Musa Qaleh.

The vitally important town was retaken from enemy hands by British and Afghan forces in December in one of the largest coalition operations in Helmand since the start of the UK-led mission there in 2006.

Just last week, the prince was commanding a seven-strong Spartan vehicle team supporting a major US and Afghan-led operation to seize control of the village of Kariz de Baba, close to Musa Qaleh. It was part of a major push to clear a route through to the Kajaki Dam.

On his return to the UK, the prince is set to receive the Operational Service Medal (OSM) for Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said he was an "exemplary soldier" to whom the country owed a "debt of gratitude". And the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, said he was "an example of a generation of young people prepared to take on these very serious and dangerous tasks for our security".