Harry's Taliban kill remarks tarnish his reputation - ex-commander

Prince Harry has tarnished his reputation with remarks about killing Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, a former British commander says. 

In his memoir, the Duke of Sussex describes his 25 kills as "chess pieces removed from the board".

Ex-army officer colonel Richard Kemp told the BBC Harry's comments were "ill-judged". 

He added the remarks may have undermined his security and could provoke people to take revenge.

Prince Harry gives details about his time as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan in his memoir Spare, which BBC News has obtained a copy of after it was put on sale early in Spain.

In it, he reveals for the first time that he killed 25 enemy fighters.

"It wasn't a statistic that filled me with pride but nor did it leave me ashamed," he writes.

"When I found myself plunged in the heat and confusion of combat I didn't think of those 25 as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board. Bad people eliminated before they could kill good people."

Colonel Kemp, who was sent to Kabul in 2003 to take command of forces in Afghanistan in 2003, said he did not have a problem with Prince Harry revealing his kill number - but took issue with the way Harry suggested Taliban insurgents were seen by the army as "sub-human and just as chess pieces to be knocked over".

He told BBC Breakfast: "I think he's wrong when he says in his book that insurgents were seen just as being virtually unhuman - subhuman perhaps - just as chess pieces to be knocked over.

"That's not the case at all. That's not the way the British Army trains people as he claims...

"So I think he's giving a wrong impression when he makes those sort of comments - that's not the way the British Army sees things."