EXTREMISTS THREATEN TO CUT HARRY'S EARS OFF
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen White 23/04/2007 (News of the world)
IRAQI militias claim they plan to seize Prince Harry as a hostage when he arrives next month - and send him home to the Queen with his ears cut off.
Pictures of the prince have been downloaded and circulated among insurgent groups, they say.
Abu Zaid, a commander in the Mehdi Army militia, said: "We are awaiting the arrival of the young, handsome, spoilt prince with bated breath and we confidently expect he will come out into the open on to the battlefield.
"We will be generous with him. For we will return him to his grandmother but without ears."
It is claimed paramilitary factions in southern Iraq have informants in British barracks to monitor Harry.
Abu Samir, a leader of the Iranian backed Sunni group Thar-allah - God's Revenge - said: "His face is now very familiar to a lot of people, more so even than Zidane and Ronaldinho." Sunni militants reportedly plan to kidnap him and demand an exchange of prisoners and the withdrawal of British troops.
And Shia militia snipers have been ordered to target Harry, 22, who is third in line to the throne.
It would be the first time the two sides - traditionally sworn enemies - had united with a common cause.
Harry will serve with the Blues and Royals for a six-month tour of duty.
He is trained as a troop leader to command four Scimitar armoured vehicles and will have 11 men serving under him.
The Ministry of Defence admitted: "We have not concealed the fact that he is going out there and the bad guys know he's coming and we expect they will consider him a high-profile scalp."
But despite the claims, officials ruled out the possibility that he might not be sent to Maysan, the most volatile province in southern Iraq, where British casualties are mounting.
Last week, two soldiers from the Queen's Royal Lancers died in Maysan when their Scimitar was hit by a roadside bomb.
There is also concern among high ranking Army officers that it will be almost impossible for Harry to "blend in" among the 7,100 UK troops.
But the prince has publicly said he does not intend "to sit on my a*** back home while my boys are out fighting for their country".
Meanwhile a soldier claimed yesterday that Iraq has become "Britain's Vietnam" with servicemen in a pointless conflict forgotten by people back home.
Kingsman Colin Thompson, 23, said most people "switch over to Coronation Street" when they saw TV reports.
Colin, of Workington, Cumbria, has done two tours of duty in Iraq with the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, seen three comrades killed, including his best friend, and intends to leave the Army in November.
He said: "Some of the lads are angry and don't understand why they are there ... it seems pointless.
"It's forgotten, like Britain's Vietnam. You spend six months out there and then come home and it's life as normal. It seems so irrelevant.
"The only people who care about it are the families of the soldiers. They're the only ones who worry about you.
"When reports come on television, other people just switch over and watch Coronation Street."
IRAQI Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he has demanded that the US stop building a wall separating a mainly Sunni part of Baghdad from Shia areas.
The US military says it is to protect the minority Sunnis from attacks. But Mr Maliki said he objected because it "might have repercussions which remind us of other walls" such as the Berlin Wall.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstor...name_page.html
The Queen will not be amused
