Prince Harry is dragged into row over British-Iranian’s execution as regime slams ‘war crime’

The Iranian regime has used Prince Harry’s confession that he killed 25 Taliban in Afghanistan to target Britain amid the escalating dispute over the execution of Alireza Akbari.

In a series of tweets criticizing Britain’s outrage over the killing of the British-Iranian dual national accused of spying, Iran claimed the country was “in no condition to preach”.

The official Twitter account of Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused the Duke of Sussex of showing no remorse for the killing of ‘innocent’ lives and accused Britain of allowing this ‘war crime’.

He said: “The British regime, whose member of the royal family, sees the murder of 25 innocent people as the removal of chess pieces and has no regrets on the issue, and those who turn a blind eye to this war crime, they are not in a position to preach to others about human rights.’

The post was referring to a controversial passage about the death count from Harry’s new memoir Spare, which is already the subject of increasing backlash.

His comments, which have also sparked security fears, have already provided the Taliban and extremist Anjem Choudary with ammunition to launch propaganda against British troops.

The former soldier used his book to detail how he had gunned down 25 militants, feeling neither satisfaction nor shame for his actions while serving in Afghanistan some 10 years ago.

He added that in order to deal with the incidents, he dehumanized his victims by seeing them as “chess pieces” and not as people.

The passage was seized by the Iranian regime as tensions escalate between Tehran and London in the wake of Akbari’s execution.

Akbari, 61, had moved to the UK on an investment visa and become a naturalized citizen here, but was lured back to Iran by security services three years ago.

But the former Iranian deputy defense minister was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the UK, a charge he denied.

His death last week has caused outrage in Britain with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling it a “callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime”.

The ministers imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also temporarily recalled the British ambassador to Iran, Simon Shercliff.

The UK is now considering designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the most powerful wing of its army, as a terrorist organization in a sign of its hardening stance towards the Islamic republic.

In the series of tweets, Iran’s Foreign Ministry called Britain’s “uproar and support of some self-proclaimed European human rights defenders” a “sign of their evasion and violation of the law.”

He added: “Britain’s intrusion into the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran has received a decisive response from Iranian intelligence and the judiciary.”

Tensions between the West and Iran are already high over Tehran’s crackdown on nationwide women’s rights protests, as well as its support for Russia’s drone invasion of Ukraine.

Harry spent a decade in the British Army before taking up full-time royal duties in 2015. During that time, he undertook two tours of Afghanistan.

The prince was first posted to Helmand province as a forward air controller in 2007, but his first tour of duty was cut short.

He made a comeback in 2012, by which time he was responsible for firing a 30mm cannon and Hellfire missiles out of a £45m Apache helicopter.

It is the first time Spare has specified the number of insurgents he personally killed during his time in Afghanistan. The Prince said he flew six missions that resulted in the ‘taking of human life’ in his autobiography.

Known as “Captain Wales” in the army, Harry wrote that he did not think of those killed “as people” but as “chess pieces” he had removed from the board.

“You can’t kill people if you see them as people,” he wrote. Instead, he said that he viewed them as ‘chess pieces removed from the board’…as ‘bad guys removed’.

Tehran is not the only brutal regime in the Middle East to criticize Harry for his confession, after the Taliban themselves criticized the Prince earlier this month.

Speaking to MailOnline, the militants branded him a ‘loud-mouthed loser’ after his disclosure, emphasizing that while his fighters were the ultimate victors of the conflict in Afghanistan, Harry had ‘fled to his grandmother’s palace’ and is now fighting to keep a place in the Royal Family.

Taliban commander Molavi Agha Gol, 32, said he thought Harry was seeking attention with his book and boasted that “chess pieces” had taken over the board following the withdrawal of international troops in 2021.

Speaking from a checkpoint outside the Iranian border town of Islam Qala, he said: “I don’t even believe what he said about the mujahidin. He is a loser and he is afraid to go to a combat zone. We made history by driving him and his army out of our homeland and he should be very angry about that.’

He added: ‘Don’t believe what losers tell you. I see a lot of news about him on my facebook feed and i really think he has gone crazy and needs a doctor right away.

‘Even if he believes [that he killed 25 Taliban]our mujahideen martyrs are in heaven, but their invading friends burn in hell and i really hope i was in helmand when he was there, to make him understand what real chess pieces are.

‘If he’s a real man and not a fucking loser, come to Afghanistan again.’

An official from the Taliban ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice said in a statement: “The chessmen are now in power and he is fighting to keep his place within his own family.”

Abul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, said Prince Harry’s comments were “a microcosm of the trauma experienced by Afghans at the hands of the occupying forces.”

Molavi Keramudin, a Taliban commander in the central city of Ghor, called for an investigation into the prince, saying: “It is he who claims he martyred the Taliban, but they can also be civilians.” If England has a system and regulations, they should investigate and see who he killed.

‘He is a so-called prince and should not walk freely after killing civilians. Is not acceptable. He’s in trouble and he’s just escalating everything he can to keep himself and his country from going to shit.

Molavi Nabi Khan, a Taliban official in the western Afghan city of Herat, said: “He is a dirty idiot and a drunken jackal.” He has destroyed all the bridges behind him and now he is just trying to avoid drowning in history.

‘Using the Taliban and his family is his last tool to get people to talk about him. I know him very well. God left him alone to give him a very big punishment at the end.’

An official from the southern province of Helmand told MailOnline: ‘It’s evil. He has left many Afghan women widows and many children orphaned and he is proud of it.

Another Taliban official, Anas Haqqani, tweeted: ‘Mr. Harry! The ones you killed weren’t chess pieces, they were human. They had families waiting for their return. Among the murderers of Afghans, not many have the decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes.

The truth is what you said. Our innocent people were chess pieces for their soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that ‘game’ of black and white ‘squares’.

‘I don’t expect the ICC [International Criminal Court] it will summon you or the human rights activists will condemn you, because they are deaf and blind to you. But I hope that these atrocities will be remembered in the history of mankind.’

In the summer of 2021, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan with a lightning offensive that swept across the country in a matter of weeks, toppling the Western-backed government set up by the US, UK and their allies.

Government leaders fled the country as Western coalition forces withdrew, culminating in the collapse of the Afghan army and the capture of Kabul by the Taliban on August 15, 2021.

Despite promising a more progressive regime than when they were last in power in 2001, the Taliban have eroded the rights of women and minority groups in the country, most recently by banning women from attending university, a move which drew fierce condemnation from the international community.