Prince Harry at front line in Afghanistan

LONDON—Prince Harry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan with the British Army, the Ministry of Defense said Thursday. Officials said the prince, a lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment, was still deployed in the country.
“His conduct on operations in Afghanistan has been exemplary,” said the head of the army. Gen. Richard Dannatt. “He has been fully involved in operations and has run the same risks as everyone else in his battle group.” Harry, who is third in line to the throne, has been in Afghanistan since December. The story was leaked by an Australian magazine and a German newspaper.
Dannatt said he was “very disappointed” that the story had leaked. Harry, 23, has been fighting in the restive Helmand province, where most of the 7,800 British troops in Afghanistan are based. Last year military chiefs ruled Harry could not be sent to Iraq with his regiment because publicity surrounding his deployment could put him and his unit at risk. Militants ambushed an opium poppy eradication force in southern Afghanistan, sparking clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, police said Thursday. Four other militants died when a bomb went off. Insurgents ambushed the drug eradication force Wednesday in Marja district of Helmand province, killing one police officer and wounding two, said Gen. Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief.
Police attacked the militants afterward, killing 25 Taliban fighters, including a senior regional militant commander, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Helmand, a front line between militants and foreign forces, is the world’s largest opium-producing region. Officials estimate that up to 40 percent of proceeds from Afghanistan’s drug trade — an amount worth tens of millions of dollars — is used to fund the insurgency.

—Agencies