Prince Harry in Afghanistan: Taliban issues threat to kill or kidnap royal

The Taliban have issued an open death threat to Prince Harry, as the helicopter pilot begins serving in Afghanistan.

• Insurgents say they will do everything in their power to kidnap or assassinate Prince Harry.

• Prince arrives in Afghanistan to fly attack helicopters.

Prince Harry is in Afghanistan on a four-month tour, based at Camp Bastion in the volatile Helmand province, where he will be on the front line in the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents.

“We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a new agency by telephone.

“We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him,” Mujahid added, declining to go into detail on what he dubbed the “Harry operations”.

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on Mujahid’s statement, and have given few details of Prince Harry’s stint in Afghanistan for security reasons.

The 27-year-old prince, who is third in line to the throne, took up his new role two weeks after being photographed frolicking naked in Las Vegas.

Known in the military as Captain Wales, he first served in Afghanistan in 2008 as an on-the-ground air controller, but his tour was cut short when a news blackout designed to protect him while he was on the front line collapsed.