Prince Harry was just ’400 yards’ from deadly gun battle at Afghanistan base but he vows to fight on
- Four British airmen injured defending Captain Wales’s helicopter base in Camp Bastion
- The three-hour fire-fight left two US Marines dead
- Prince was rushed to safety by protection squad but insists he is fine to carry on with his duties as a helicopter pilot
- Military sources say the attack must have been planned for days
Prince Harry had to be rushed to safety after he was caught ‘just 400 yards’ from a fierce battle when Taliban fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades burst into Camp Bastion.
As the insurgents stormed the base in Helmand province with Harry as their target, the Prince’s armed bodyguards escorted him to a protected area.
But despite being so close to the intense three-hour fire-fight – which left two US Marines dead, four British airmen seriously wounded and several aircraft ablaze – the Prince last night told his commanding officers he was ‘staying put’.
He insisted to superiors that he was ‘fine’ and was determined to carry out his duties as an Apache helicopter pilot.
As well as apparently targeting the Prince, a Taliban spokesman also indicated the raid was a response to an anti-Muslim film made in the US, which has caused outbreaks of violence across the Middle East.
