Army to pull Prince out of combat amid safety fears

PRINCE Harry is to be pulled out of Afghanistan amid fears for his safety.

The 23-year-old Household Cavalry officer, who has been fighting the Taliban in Helmand Province for the past 10 weeks, is set to be flown home to the UK, it was reported today.

The move, which will be a bitter blow to the Prince, follows the breakdown of a news blackout deal agreed across the UK media after foreign websites leaked details of his secret deployment.

The final decision on whether to extract him was due to be taken today by the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup after discussions with the head of the Army, chief of the general staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt.

It was General Dannatt who last year faced the task of announcing a U-turn on plans to deploy the Prince – a Cornet or Second Lieutenant in the Blues and Royals – to Iraq.

Intelligence picked up a series of specific threats to Harry and his comrades in Iraq after details of his planned deployment were announced and received widespread publicity.

It is feared that the revelation that the third in line to the throne has been fighting in Helmand would increase the tempo of attacks on British forces by the Taliban.

No details are available on when the Prince will arrive home.

The Prince has spent the past ten weeks living his dream of serving on the frontline. During a posting to Garmsir, the southernmost part of the province under allied control, he was able to go on patrol and mix with locals.

His work as a "JTAC" (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) involved carrying out detailed aerial surveillance.

The development will be a major blow to Harry who was devastated last spring when his planned deployment to Iraq had to be cancelled.

He considered leaving the Army but was given fresh hope by the chance to retrain as a JTAC in order to go to Afghanistan as part of a battlegroup centred on his own regiment the Household Cavalry.

The deal held for two-and-a-half months since his deployment in mid December despite two separate visits from British media to observe the prince at work.

General Dannatt last night praised the mainstream media for its restraint in not publicising details of Harry's deployment before.

He also joined Prime Minister Gordon Brown in hailing the prince as an "exemplary" young officer. "The whole of Britain will be proud of the outstanding service he is giving," Mr Brown said.

But in an interview just last week Harry conceded that on his return to the UK he could be a "top target" for homegrown jihadists sympathetic to the Taliban.

"Once this ... comes out, every single person that supports them will be trying to slot me," he said.