I know he went back a few days ago, but this just appeared in the papers today- "The Taliban today said they were doing everything in their power to kidnap or assassinate Prince Harry during his tour of Afghanistan. Just four days after the 27-year-old arrived in the volatile Helmand province, militants confirmed that he was one of their prime targets. 'We are using all our strength to get rid of him, either by killing or kidnapping,' Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. 'We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him,' Mujahid added, declining to go into detail on what he dubbed the 'Harry operations'. The 27-year-old prince, who is third in line to the throne, took up his new role two weeks after he was photographed frolicking naked in Las Vegas. Known in the military as Captain Wales, he first served in Afghanistan in 2008 as an on-ground air controller." Prince Harry: Taliban threat to kidnap or kill him | Mail Online What's the betting that the first time the Taliban manage to shoot down an Apache they'll claim he was in it and is now dead, and any news reports proving otherwise will be screamed down as a "conspiracy" by the usual suspects? I'll put money on it.
Gordon, last time he was "outed" by the media and the concern is that his presence would endanger his group. Now that I am reading this in Alabama, surely everyone in the world knows it. That leads me to believe something is not correct here. Surely the military would not release such information. bit extremely for chasing a naked girl around Las Vegas out of uniform. Maybe the Royals are hiding him at Balmoral !! LOL, under house arrest ! Something here is not right. The Taliban surely have some sophisticated should fired surface to air missiles, ex Russian or Chinese. Plus I doubt they would say thy were going to try and get him in advance. This all sounds fishy, maybe false releases for some unknown reason. Gaines
I really like that young man. He could take the easy way out and enjoy the life of royalty, but not him ! Go get em Harry !
This could work out well. Just accidentally let it be known 'Captain Wales' is at FOB Such&Such but neglect to mention there are also 1,000 British Commando's surrounding him. If I recall he was not too happy when they brought him home the last time due to Security concerns.
It strikes fear in this mom's heart I can tell you. Okay, I have a softspot for Harry. I'd hate to see something happen to that young man. But kudos to him for doing his duty. This trip isn't secret, for some reason, and apparently a Taliban spokesperson gave this bit of news to Reuters. I always get the feeling that groups like this spout off about a whole lot and then if something actually does pan out they can claim it was a deliberate action. It does seem a bit odd that the military would be so forthcoming, even telling where Harry is based. Maybe they just figured there was no way to keep it secret or maybe it is a ploy. (I like Biak's scenario.) I just hope other people don't get hurt.
They said he would be stationed at Camp Bastion in Helmand, the largest of Afghanistan's provinces. Helmand is a fairly large province at 22,619 square miles, about the size of West Virginia and 25% the size of Great Britain. It has come a long way from where it was before the Marines and Brit's went medieval on their butts. Most of the fighting is now taking place in the extreme north of the province up above Musa Qala and Kajaki and we're still conducting offensive operations in that area, which means we have the initiative and keeps the Talibani's off balance. Helmand used to be a major infiltration route into Afghanistan, with the bad guys crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan on the southern border. They'd then infiltrate into the populated areas that lay in a string from SSW to NNE along the Helmand River. This has been greatly curtailed and there are now a string of FOB's along the southern border, that are manned and patrolled by a reinforced LAV battalion. (They've continually kept a LAV battalion in that area for the last 2-3 years) The terrain in that area is fairly flat and arid, making it an excellent area for light armored vehicles to operate. The Talibani's big strong holds were Marja, Sangin and Now Zad. Marja and Now Zad are now fairly quiet and a huge amount of progress has been made in Sangin. Sangin was the Taliban's heartland and an epic fight went on in the fall of 2010 and the first couple months of 2011. Then they fled north. Camp Bastion is co-located with Camp Leatherneck the huge Marine Corps base in Helmand. (The younger son actually spent some time in the British hospital at Bastion back in 2010, when he got hurt) The two bases are located west of Gereshk, near the main highway to Deleram. The area they are located in is really good terrain from a defensive point of view. Hell, the Talibani's can't get close enough for indirect fire with anything they have and they couldn't take the base with a division of troops, supported by armor. (neither of which they have) Where Harry is at is about as safe a place in Afghanistan as there is. Where he is vulnerable is if they have him actually flying missions over hostile areas. I don't know how the Talibani's would determine which specific Apache he might be flying so they'd probably have to target any Apache they see, which will probably even further reduce the Talibani population, because the fire returned from an Apache will greatly exceed the incoming fire. I doubt they'll let him fly much though just on the off chance that he does have an accident and the Taliban tries to claim responsibility. Helmand province Flying in Camp Bastion 2012 - YouTube A video of flying into Camp Bastion/Leatherneck shows the terrain and gives an idea of it's size. "I just hope other people don't get hurt" I'd personally like to see a lot of Taliban getting hurt. Hurt real bad.
Maybe Harry is not there and now as talibans come out of their hiding places after the "crown jewels", they will out in the open for UAV´s to get them... I think the US have been quite successful in the last two years especially due to UAV`s to get close and kill at least several top al-Qaeda bosses. Compared to the previous 2001-2010.
Well they've (The Taliban) made their first attempt and while they were stopped and killed (well all but one), they penetrated deeper onto the base than I would have anticipated. Details are still coming out, but apparently they got close to the base by approaching at night and dressing in US Army uniforms. It looks like there were 15 to 20 (15 being the most quoted number but several reports put 18 as the number of insurgents killed) of them and once they reached the outer barrier, one of them blew himself up with a suicide vest, breaching it. They got onto the flightline and destroyed several aircraft including some Marine Corps Harriers. All but one was killed and he was wounded and captured. While it is surprising and disturbing that they penetrated as far as they did, they were still quite removed from the housing and main operational facilities. They invested a great deal of planning and resources into this attack. The attack also shows that this time the Taliban are willing to do more than talk. I'll be curious to see their next move, when they decide a target is valuable enough they can be quite determined and creative, bringing in assets from all over the world. Good link to the story: The Taliban Attack On Camp Bastion - Business Insider
Kai the incidents like these former enemies being trained by "us" and wear the same uni, yes very disgusting and dangerous, but of course we could just hang everything up and leave and allow them to beat each other into dirt via their personal tribal gripes ........... it may happen yet.
