Britain: Harry Done With Afghan Deployment
Britain's defense chief decided Friday to immediately pull Prince Harry out of Afghanistan after news of his deployment was leaked, citing concerns that media coverage could put him and his comrades at increased risk.
Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, chief of the Defense Staff, said he decided to withdraw the prince after senior commanders assessed the risks, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Prince Harry has been serving with his British army unit in Helmand, one of Afghanistan's most lawless and barren provinces. It had been kept a secret until Thursday.
Harry is the first royal to serve in a combat zone since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters during Britain's war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1982.
Photos: Prince Harry In Afghanistan
British officials had hoped to keep the 23-year-old's deployment secret until he had safely returned.
CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports the Ministry of Defense reached a deal with the world's major media organizations to keep Harry's deployment quiet, due to fears he'd be a "bullet magnet" for the Taliban, endangering him and his troops.
Photos: Princely Endeavors
But the ministry released video Thursday of Harry serving in Helmand Province after a leak appeared on the U.S. Web site the Drudge Report.
Britain's military chiefs were reportedly angered over the leak, but it had been planned for according to an army spokesman speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp. Tours to Afghanistan usually last six months, but Harry has served just 10 weeks.Photos: Wills Wings It
The ministry asked the media not to speculate on Harry's location - or how and when he would return - until he was back in Britain.
Bowden said militants would likely think, "all we had to do was sit here and wait for the media to do our job."
Queen Elizabeth II said her grandson had performed "a good job in a very difficult climate."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the prince had demonstrated that he was an exemplary young officer and the country owned him a "debt of gratitude."
"Security considerations come first. That has been the deciding factor which was made by our defense staff and I think that everybody will respect that is the right decision," Brown said.
As for the soldier prince, who previously was better known for appearing slightly intoxicated in paparazzi photographs, he appeared in the newly-released videos as though he couldn't have been happier in one of the world's most dangerous corners.
"It's bizarre," he said in an interview. "I'm out here now, haven't really had a shower for four days, haven't washed my clothes for a week and everything seems completely normal... It's nice just to be here with all the guys and just mucking it as one of the lads."
Harry said his brother Prince William wrote to tell him his late mother, Princess Diana, would have been proud.
"She would be looking down having a giggle about the stupid things that I've been doing, like going left when I should have gone right," Harry said.
Harry said William, who also graduated from Sandhurst and is training as a military pilot, is jealous of his deployment. As second in line for the throne, William is unlikely to ever see combat.
Upon arriving in Afghanistan, a short-lived lack of frontline action disappointed him, and his troops.
"I got here on Christmas Eve. And going from bullet magnet to anti-bullet magnet, most of the guys were pretty bummed that I was here because nothing was happening for the first few days that I was here. But things are picking up again now because it's obviously quite boring when nothing is happening," Harry said in one video.
Harry was supposed to go to Iraq with the Blues and Royals regiment last May but the assignment was scrapped at the last minute because of security fears. Iraqi insurgents made threats on Internet chat rooms, saying he would not make it home alive.
Harry trained at Sandhurst military academy and joined the Blues and Royals as a cornet, the cavalry regiment's equivalent of a second lieutenant. After being held back from his Iraq assignment, the prince threatened to quit the army if he wasn't given the chance to see combat.
Most of the 7,800 British soldiers in Afghanistan are based in Helmand. It has seen some of the country's fiercest combat in recent years, with NATO-led forces fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
The close-quarter combat has been described as the most challenging British troops have faced since the Korean War, with their positions sometimes just a few yards from those held by insurgents. Since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Afghanistan's Taliban regime in late 2001, 89 British soldiers have been killed.
Harry's work in Afghanistan has involved calling in air strikes on Taliban positions as well as going out on foot patrols. He spent part of his deployment at an operating base just 500 yards from Taliban positions, the military said.
Since Harry's arrival, his battle group has been responsible for around 30 enemy deaths, a Ministry of Defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.