PRINCE Harry's Taliban kill count in his new book is a deliberate attempt to win UK taxpayer-funded security back, a defence expert claims.
The wayward Prince's explosive revelations in Spare that he killed 25 Taliban fighters have sparked a ferocious response from officials in the ruthless Afghan regime and prompted fears his life is now at further risk.
But Dr Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society think tank, believes Harry purposely included the incendiary remarks to push for more security for him and his family - at a cost to the Royal Family and the taxpayer.
Dr Mendoza, who specialises in defence, terror and extremism, told The Sun: "In truth, he is no more of less of a target than before.
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"Prince Harry’s claims about the number of Taliban he may have killed - whether true or not - seem calculated to achieve just one objective: to secure extra security for himself at the U.K. taxpayer’s expense.
"All he has succeeded in doing is to allow a despicable regime a free PR hit in response to his poorly framed comments."
The Duke of Sussex’s comments, seen in leaks of his new tell-all memoir Spare, reveal that he believes he killed 25 Taliban soldiers during his two deployments in Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot.
Harry, 38, also writes that he did not see his victims as real "people" but rather "chess pieces removed from the board".
They were, he adds, “baddies eliminated before they could kill goodies".
Enraged Taliban official Anas Haqqani responded online: “Mr Harry! The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans… these atrocities will be remembered in the history of humanity.”
Suhail Shaheen, head of the Taliban’s political office, also weighed in and declared that Harry had "committed a crime against humanity".
The brutal Taliban regime doles out archaic punishments and rules with an extreme jihadist doctrine that enslaves women.
A former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, Colonel Richard Kemp, branded Harry's comments as "betrayal", stating that he had exposed the Armed Forces, himself and his family to heightened threats.
“This will incite some people to attempt an attack on British soldiers anywhere in the world," he told Sky News.
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"The impact on his own personal security is even greater,” Colonel Kemp added.
On Sunday, Anjem Choudary, known as the mouthpiece of Islamic extremism in the UK, began whipping up a storm of fury in response to the Duke's claims.
The hate preacher wrote online that the prince’s comments “tells us everything we need to know about the Royal Family and their thinking about Islam and Muslims".
The frightening statement adds: “Harry still saw fit to plunge his knife further into the hearts of Muslims with his callous boastful comments.”
He called on jihadists to retaliate by targeting British troops stationed overseas in “Syria, Iraq and North Africa”.
Choudary, 55, who helped to inspire the brutal murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013, served time in jail for his support for IS between 2016-2018.
In spite of these hateful comments, Mendoza maintains that it doesn't make Harry "any more of a target than he was already".
