Prince Harry’s birthday almost never came as the Taliban has claimed that an attack on his base in Afghanistan was aimed at killing the royal family member.
The attack on the heavily fortified Camp Bastion, the British headquarters in Helmand, left two US Marines dead and others injured, the Daily Mail reported . Insurgents armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades struck the compound, aiming to kill Prince Harry, the report said.
‘We attacked that base because Prince Harry was also on it and so they can know our anger,’ Taliban spokesman Qari Youssef Ahmadi said by telephone.
He added, “Thousands more suicide attackers are ready to give up their lives for the sake of the Prophet.”
Prince Harry’s birthday comes on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, where he will be for four months. His job is to fly Apache attack helicopters, which the Daily Mail notes have “the highest kill rate.”
The British Ministry of Defense didn’t exactly buy the Taliban’s justification about the attack before Prince Harry’s birthday. The original justification for the attack was the furor caused by the film Innocence of Muslims , a B-movie from the United States that insults the prophet Muhammad and the Islamic religion.
“After saying this attack was mounted in reaction to the video on Islam, it is entirely predictable that the Taliban have changed their tune to say it was aimed at Captain Wales,” a Ministry of Defense source said.
For Prince Harry , birthday celebrations in Afghanistan will likely be muted, E! News noted . The royal has gotten back to his duties in the military and will be kept under strict watch, unlike the last month of the summer when he endured plenty of bad press for his naked antics in Las Vegas.
Though Prince Harry’s birthday was probably a relief for the royal, American officials noted that he was never in any real danger. He was kept under lockdown during the attack.