The Taliban Says Prince Harry Is a Crazy 'Coward'

Prince Harry may have humble-bragged his way home from Afghanistan, all full of war stories and gunned-down insurgents, but the Taliban isn't having any of it.

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Prince Harry may have humble-bragged his way home from Afghanistan, all full of war stories and gunned-down insurgents, but the Taliban isn't having any of it. "Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, said Prince Harry was a 'coward' for speaking only after he was out of harm's way," report The Telegraph's Rob Crilly and Zubair Babakarkhail.

On Monday, in interviews coordinated with the announcement that he had returned from a five-month tour of duty, Harry described, well, taking out the Taliban: 

If there's people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we'll take them out of the game, I suppose ... Take a life to save a life … the squadron's been out here. Everyone's fired a certain amount.

But the insurgents were particularly incensed with this quote in particular:

It’s a joy for me because I’m one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I’m probably quite useful

Comparing killing to video games really rubbed the Taliban the wrong way and prompted them to play psychologist. Harry "has probably developed a mental problem," the Taliban spokesman is quoted as telling the AFP. He added:

This statement is not even worth condemning. It is worse than that ... To describe the war in Afghanistan as a game demeans anyone – especially a prince, who is supposed to be made of better things.

Those are fighting words, and just to be clear, the insurgents represented by the spokesman — the ones calling the prince "demeaning" — fall under the same umbrella organization as the insurgents who saw fit to promise to kill 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai for attending school and who aren't strangers to bragging about killing people. "It shows the lack of understanding, of knowledge," the Taliban said spokesman said. Hmm.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.