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Prince Harry writes in his new memoir "Spare" that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during his second tour of Afghanistan, according to reporting from news outlets that obtained the book ahead of its official Jan. 10 release.

The reported revelation marks the first time that Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has discussed the number of people he says he personally killed during his military service.

Harry, 38, served as a British Army officer for 10 years. Known as Capt. Harry Wales in the Army, he was deployed to Afghanistan twice, from 2007 to 2008 and then again from 2012 to 2013.

According to news reports, Harry writes in his memoir that it was during his second tour of Afghanistan that he flew on missions resulting in the loss of human lives.

He reportedly writes in "Spare" that he thought of the Taliban fighters as "chess pieces" being taken off the board at the time.

Cover of the book 'Spare' by Prince Harry.

Random House

Watch Michael Strahan's interview with Prince Harry on Monday, Jan. 9, at 7 a.m. EST on "Good Morning America" and the special, "Prince Harry: In His Own Words | Michael Strahan Reporting" at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC News Live.

Harry's reported comments have sparked outcries from senior Taliban officials.

Anas Haqqani, a senior aide and brother of interim Afghan Interior Minister Siraj Haqqani, tweeted that the people Harry claims he killed "were humans."

"The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return," Anas Haqqani wrote. "Among the killers of Afghans, not many have your decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes. The truth is what you've said; Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that 'game' of white & black 'square.'"

Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, also issued a reply, noting the country of Afghanistan "will never forget such acts."

"'The recent confession by British prince Harry, who brutally killed 25 of our countrymen during his mission in Afghanistan, shows that such crimes are not limited to Harry but to all those occupying country forces who were in Afghanistan," Karimi said in a tweet. "It is unfortunate that the Western countries consider themselves to be the defender & supporters of human rights, but in practical that's their real manners. Afghanistan as Muslim nation will never forget such acts and will always defend its land'."

Some former members of the British military are also speaking out about Harrys reported revelations in his book.

Former Royal Marine Ben McBean, who lost two limbs in Afghanistan and shared an RAF flight out of the war zone with Harry, tweeted that the prince needs to shut up.

Love you #PrinceHarry but you need to shut up!, McBean wrote on Twitter. Makes you wonder the people hes hanging around with. If it was good people somebody by now would have told him to stop.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former Army commander in Afghanistan, told the BBC that Harrys comments about his time in Afghanistan were ill-judged.

"I think he's wrong when he says in his book that insurgents were seen just as being virtually unhuman - subhuman perhaps - just as chess pieces to be knocked over, Kemp said. That's not the case at all. And it's not the way the British Army trains people as he claims.

Kemp continued, "I think that sort of comment that doesn't reflect reality, is misleading and potentially valuable to those people who wish the British forces and British government harm, so I think it was an error of judgement."

Harry joined the British Army in May 2005 and rose to the rank of Apache helicopter commander before leaving the army in 2015. The British Defense Ministry named Harry the best front-seat pilot, or co-pilot gunner, in February 2012 from his class of more than 20 fellow Apache helicopter pilots.

Britain's Prince Harry races out from the VHR (very high ready-ness) tent to scramble his Apache with fellow Pilots, during his 12 hour shift at the British controlled flight-line in Camp Bastion southern Afghanistan, Nov. 3, 2012.

John Stillwell/AP, FILE

Harry spoke to "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts in 2016 about his service, describing it as a chance to prove himself.

"Ten years in the Army was the best escape that I've ever had, an escape from all sorts of intrusion," Harry told Roberts while promoting the Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style sporting event he founded for veterans. "But I also felt as though I was really achieving something. I felt as though I was part of a team."

"All I wanted to do was to prove to other people that I had a certain set of skills," he said. "All it's done over those 10 years is given me this amazing amount of knowledge and experience where I am now perfectly positioned to be [service members'] voice and champion their cause."

Both of Harry's tours in Afghanistan were cut short when his presence there was leaked in the press.

Prince Harry during an interview with ABC News.

ABC News

Harry's memoir, "Spare," is said to cover his relationship and tension with the British press, as well as his experience growing up in the royal family, his time in the military, the death of his mother, his decision in 2020 to step down from his role as a senior working royal and his life now as a husband and father.

Harry said previously that the memoir would be a "firsthand account of my life that's accurate and wholly truthful."

Watch Michael Strahan's interview with Prince Harry on Monday, Jan. 9, at 7 a.m. EST on "Good Morning America" and the special, "Prince Harry: In His Own Words | Michael Strahan Reporting" at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC News Live.

ABC News' Cindy Smith, Zoe Magee and Aleem Agha contributed to this report.

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Taliban leaders respond to Prince Harry's reported claim in 'Spare' he ...

1. Harry's new memoir draws anger and protests in Afghanistan  The Associated Press - en Espaol
2. The Implications of Prince Harry Saying He Killed 25 Taliban Fighters  TIME
3. If Harry sounds callous about killing, he is. All of us who served were at least he knows why  The Guardian

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Harry's new memoir draws anger and protests in Afghanistan - The Associated Press - en Espaol

Another massive earthquake was reported in Afghanistan which, according to seismologists, was measured at 5.9 magnitudes on the Richter scale.

The earthquake's epicentre was traced tothe Hindu Kush region in the country at a depth of roughly 200 km. According to theNational Centre of Seismology (NCS), the first jolt was felt at around 7:55 pmaround 79 km south of Afghanistan's Fayzabad and its shock waves reached cities like Srinagar and Chandigarh in India. TheGerman Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) even estimated the amount of energy that was produced by the shock waves.

According to the estimates of scientists at GFZ, the earthquake in Afghanistan produced energy equivalent to5351 tons of explosive TNT. The shock waves were also equivalent to 0.3 times the energy produced after the detonation of an atomic bomb.

The atomic bombs codenamed 'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' for instance, which were dropped in Japanese towns Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II produced energy equivalent to 15,000 tons and 21,000 tons of TNT on explosion. For a much-clearidea of the strength of the earthquake, it produced about 6.3 gigawatt hours of energy, which is enough to power 4.5 million average-sized houses.

The tremors of the earthquake was so strong that the tremors were felt in Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand along with other countries such as Tajikistan and Pakistan. Prior to this, an earthquake wasreported in northern India on January 1. The NCS reported thattremors of magnitude 3.8 were felt in the Delhi-NCR region and its epicentre was in Haryana's Jhajjar, where the earthquake originated from a depth of 5 km.

So far, no reports of casualties have been reported from Afghanistan or any other regions in India. Afghanistan, however, has been subjected to deadly earthquakes in the past, with the recent one in mid-2022 killing thousands of people in the country.In July last year, the country was struck with a 5.9 magnitude earthquake which turned out to be the most deadly as it killed over 1,000 Afghanis. According to International Rescue Community, thousands more were injured and at least 1,800 houses were destroyed.

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Afghanistan earthquake vs atomic bomb: The strength of the tremors will ...

Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistans defence minister has alleged that Afghanistans soil is being used by armed groups to launch attacks on his country, prompting a sharp response from Taliban government in Kabul which called the allegation incorrect and regrettable.

We have spoken to Afghanistan government and we will keep saying that their soil is being used for cross-border terrorism, Khwaja Asif told a private news channel on Monday night.

Asifs remarks came shortly after Pakistans Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, newly appointed military chief General Asim Munir and other top officials attended a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) in the capital Islamabad.

A statement issued by the government after the NSC meeting said no country will be allowed to provide sanctuaries to terrorists and their attacks will be dealt with full force of the state.

The NSC statement did not name any country but it was an apparent reference to neighbouring Afghanistan, whose government denies the allegations as provocative and baseless.

In response to the two statements, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan, on Tuesday said the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wants good relations with all its neighboring countries, including Pakistan, using the name Taliban has given to the country.

The Islamic Emirate is trying its best that the territory of Afghanistan is not used against Pakistan or any other country. We are committed to this goal, but the Pakistani side is also responsible to try controlling the situation, refrain from giving baseless statements and provocative assertions, because such statement and mistrust is not in the interest of either side, it added.

The exchange of words between Pakistan and Afghanistan officials follows a series of recent attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an armed group also known as Pakistani Taliban because of its ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban.

The TTP has been waging a rebellion against the state of Pakistan for more than a decade. The group demands the imposition of their hardline interpretation of Islamic law, the release of its members arrested by the government, and a reversal of the merger of Pakistans tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

In 2022 alone, Pakistans monitoring agencies recorded more than 150 attacks launched by the TTP across the country, killing dozens of people. Authorities fear the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan has emboldened the TTP and led to its resurgence.

In November, the armed group unilaterally ended an Afghan Taliban-brokered ceasefire agreement with the Pakistani government and ordered its fighters to carry out attacks across the country.

In his interview with the news channel, Asif invoked the Doha accord the Taliban signed with the United States in February 2020 to facilitate the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

As part of the pact, the Taliban committed to not allowing any armed group to use Afghanistans soil to launch attacks on another nation. As US and NATO troops began to leave in August 2021, the Afghan Taliban took over Kabul.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Pakistans Prime Minister Sharif saidPakistan will adopt zero tolerance policy for terrorists challenging its writ. Peace is non-negotiable, he wrote.

Last month, TTP fighters overpowered Pakistani security personnel and took them as hostages at a counterterrorism centre in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The 40-hour siege ended after the Pakistani military stormed the facility and killed all 33 TTP attackers.

The incident added to escalating tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.

Last week, Pakistans interior minister Rana Sanaullah said his government is considering launching attacks on TTP hideouts in Afghanistan if the Taliban government fails in handing over members of the armed group to Pakistan.

The Taliban responded, saying Afghanistan is not without its owner.

As always, we are ready to defend the territorial integrity and independence of our homeland, and it is mentionable we have a better experience than anyone in defending and protecting our country, it said in a statement.

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Afghanistan used to launch attacks on Pakistan: Defence minister ...

1. Prince Harry reveals that he killed 25 people in Afghanistan  The Telegraph
2. Prince Harry Killed 25 In Afghanistan As Pilot In British Army: Report  NDTV
3. Prince Harry Vowed to Leave Afghanistan with His 'Conscience Intact,' He Writes in Memoir  PEOPLE

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Prince Harry reveals that he killed 25 people in Afghanistan - The Telegraph