Prince Harry’s police protection is being reviewed due to fears his admission he killed Taliban insurgents will put him at risk of a “revenge attack”.
The 28-year-old royal confessed to killing enemy soldiers in Afghanistan in a candid interview to mark the end of his 20-week deployment in Helmand.
Related: Prince Harry – ‘I have killed to save lives’
Harry said he sometimes had to “take a life to save a life” and compared flying deadly missions to playing video games.
The comments infuriated the Taliban and Scotland Yard is now reportedly considering upgrading Harry’s security status to protect him from extremist reprisals.
“Purely from a protection point of view, I think it was highly unadvisable for Prince Harry to draw attention to himself,” Dai Davies, former head of the Metropolitan Police’s Royal Protection Squad, told the UK’s Daily Mail.
“It may be the reality that he killed insurgents, but saying this publicly just increases the likelihood of some lunatic trying to take revenge on him.
“It does not seem to have occurred to this young man that he has responsibility not only to himself, but also those who guard him.
“If you look at other senior royals, they never discussed their deployments. Prince Andrew never did. His father never did and nor did his uncles. None of them discussed whether they did or didn’t kill while in the military.”
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The Taliban have publicly criticised Harry’s comments, releasing a statement branding him a coward and vowing to try harder to kill him.
Harry flew out of Afghanistan on Monday night. He spent some time debriefing at a British base in Cyprus but is now believed to have returned to Britain.
