By IRNA
London : The second son of British heir to the throne is being withdrawn from serving with UK troops in Afghanistan following foreign media breaking a new blackout on his deployment, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London announced Friday.
“This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier,” the MoD said in a statement.
It said that the decision to immediately withdraw the 23-year- old, who is third in line to the British throne, followed a “detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command.” “The decision by elements of the foreign media to report Prince Harry’s presence in Afghanistan without any consultation with the Ministry of Defence is regrettable,” the statement said.
The British royal, who has been in Afghanistan for more than two months, was due to return with his regiment, the Household Cavalry Regiment Battlegroup, in the next few weeks, but the MoD said “the situation has now clearly changed.”
According to the Times newspaper, a rare deal was struck between the MoD and the British media to enable the prince to serve a ten-week tour of duty with his comrades in Afghanistan without the world knowing anything about it.
But the news blackout was broken on Thursday, when an American website, the Drudge Report, broke the news internationally and was followed by blanket coverage in the UK media.
The MoD appealed that until the royal returns to the UK, it was asking the media to “refrain from speculating on his current location, timelines and routes.”
The second son of Prince Charles joined the Household Cavalry in 2006 after receiving training at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in south-east England.
The MoD last May decided against sending him to Iraq after speculation about his impending deployment was widely reported in the media.
Members of the royal family have a tradition in receiving military training.
Prince Andrew, the monarch’s second son, served during the 1982 war against Argentina over the Falklands war.