Prince Harry due back in Britain after Afghan tour
LONDON (AFP) — Prince Harry is due back in Britain on Saturday after a 10-week tour fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, with his father Prince Charles and elder brother Prince William heading the welcoming party.
The 23-year-old, who is third in line to the throne, is expected to arrive at Royal Air Force Base Brize Norton near Oxford, south central England, after being ordered out of war-torn Afghanistan on security grounds.
Harry, a junior officer in the Household Cavalry, had been in the volatile southern province of Helmand since mid-December but foreign media on Thursday broke a news blackout deal arranged with Britain's defence ministry.
The ministry confirmed early Saturday that the young royal left Afghanistan early Friday evening.
Britain's Press Association news agency said he was picked up at a grid reference in the desert where he had been on manoeuvres with a tank squadron and taken to a NATO base to catch a military transport plane home.
He is one of about 700 to 800 soldiers from Britain's 7,800-strong contingent in the NATO coalition in Afghanistan returning home Saturday, officers at RAF Brize Norton said.
Harry's deployment made him the first British royal to be see frontline action since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a naval helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.
He had been due to go to Iraq last year, but military top brass performed an about-turn amid concern about his security and that of his fellow soldiers.
That left him on the verge of quitting the army until he was offered the chance to serve in Afghanistan as a battlefield air controller.
Television pictures aired since US website Drudge Report broke the embargo Thursday have shown him calling in air strikes on Taliban positions and firing at insurgents with a machine gun.
His work has won wide praise from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, political and
military leaders, but also led to claims that he is itching to return to frontline duties.
The Daily Telegraph quoted an unnamed royal official as saying: "He is frustrated about coming back and leaving his friends behind. But he is realistic and understands the way of the world.
"He hopes he can go back as his presence went undetected for 10 weeks. He feels he played a real role over there. But he knows it is a matter for the Ministry of Defence."
Now he has withdrawn, it can be reported that until Friday night he was operating with a squadron of light tanks in the desert outside the former Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala.
The strategically important town was in Taliban hands for 10 months until December, becoming a base for the hardliners implementing the harsh version of justice they imposed during their 1996-2001 rule, including executions.
Afghan and British soldiers led the campaign for its recapture.
Harry, a second lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry, also commanded a seven-strong Spartan vehicle team supporting a major US and Afghan push last week to clear a route through to the Kajaki Dam.
The prince -- who has gained a reputation for hard-partying and attracting trouble at home -- told reporters who visited him in Afghanistan that he enjoyed being away from the glare of media publicity.
"I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get," he said.
But he acknowledged his tour could make him a "top target" for extremists and said he had been nicknamed "bullet magnet".
"Every single person that supports them will be trying to slot me," he said.
A number of British newspapers quoted foreign-based Islamists as agreeing that Harry's role could incense radicals, but mainstream Muslim opinion in Britain has been largely supportive.
