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Prince Harry is nuts, taunts Taliban madman

Zabiullah Mujahid

Zabiullah Mujahid (EPA)

GAME OF THRONES: Prince Harry says his war action is “a joy” because he’s an avid gamer, as here in Afghanistan. (
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The Taliban says Prince Harry is bonkers.

“He must have a mental problem for him to say that war is like a game,” the terrorist group’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, told The Times of London.

The prince, third in line to the British throne, outraged the Afghanistan militants by saying his four-month tour of duty as a helicopter gunner was fun.

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

Mujahid responded yesterday, “If you look at the [British] economy, what they’ve spent, and the lives of the people they lost here, do you think that’s a game?

“But we don’t take his comments very seriously,” he added to Agence-France Presse, “as we have all seen and heard that many foreign soldiers, occupiers who come to Afghanistan, develop some kind of mental problems on their way out.”

Mujahid also charged that Harry’s account of killing Taliban insurgents and getting shot at during scores of missions was an exaggerated boast.

“Maybe he says all this to keep his family happy,” Mujahid went on, taunting, “His bodyguards were always making plans for his stay and to keep him away from fighting, in a safe zone.

“He was living like a diplomat, not a soldier.”

But the prince — who embarrassed his family by being photographed nude as he played strip billiards in Las Vegas before his latest Afghan duty — won plaudits yesterday in Britain.

In Parliament, Defense Minister Mark Francois said the prince should be commended for his bravery. He “has done well for his country,” Francois said.

Former officer Charles Heyman, who edits a yearbook on British forces, also applauded the prince.

“By and large, the world’s elite make sure their sons and daughters go nowhere near the firing line,” he said. “So it brings credit to the royal family, and it’s good for army morale, that Harry’s not sitting back in London saying, ‘Well done, boys!’ ”

But Heyman warned that Harry’s disclosures in interviews released Monday may make him even more of a marked man for the Taliban.

“The royal family are all targets, and he now probably becomes the prime target, royal family-wise,” Heyman said.

“But he can live with that. He’s a soldier, he knows what he’s doing.”

The Taliban spokesman also confirmed that the group had been gunning for Harry and had deliberately targeted his military base, Camp Bastion.

“We have always wanted to capture or kill this prince,” he said, “but he was mostly kept inside, safe, and in guarded places underground.”

Harry has been out of public sight — in Cyprus — since his latest tour ended.

“He is here to decompress and is passing through,” an official at a British military base on the Mediterranean island told Agence-France Presse.

With AP