He was criticised for being too flippant about his time in Afghanistan, but Prince Harry has returned from his 20-week deployment a changed man after witnessing the death of a seven-year-old girl.
Harry, 28, touched down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last night local time, and told the waiting press he had seen insurgents kill a young girl on his final day in the war-torn country.
Related: Prince Harry at risk of ‘lunatic revenge attack’
“I don’t know what is normal anymore,” he said. “There’s nothing normal about what we’ve been doing for the last four and a half months.”
“In the last day that I was there a seven-year-old girl got shot down by insurgents. Normality is a very ambiguous thing.”
Despite his obvious distress at what he had seen in Afghanistan, Harry said he will always enjoy being a soldier.
“I will continue being myself,” he said. “I will enjoy being a soldier. It was a hell of an experience. I’m really proud of the guys. I’m just thrilled to be back.
“You get life experiences that you get nowhere else out there. The best thing about it is to be back. I’ll be looking forward to getting back and seeing my family.”
Harry made headlines this week, giving a candid interview about his time on the front line. His comments boosted his popularity with the public, but outraged the Taliban, who said they would redouble their efforts to kill him.
This has reportedly led police to reconsider his security status, amid fears he would become the target of a “lunatic revenge attack”.
Related: Prince Harry – ‘I have killed to save lives’
Harry left Afghanistan on Monday night after completing his second tour of duty in the troubled country.
He then spent two days debriefing at a British army base in Cyprus, before catching a regular personnel flight back to England.
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