BRITAIN:Prince Harry's war in Afghanistan has came to an abrupt end following worldwide media coverage of his secret deployment there which was deemed to compromise his security and that of others serving alongside him.
The ministry of defence confirmed the decision to withdraw the prince "immediately" after website and foreign media revelations forced the collapse of a news blackout previously agreed and rigorously upheld by all British newspaper and broadcast editors.
Prince Harry (23) had his dream of frontline action fulfilled shortly before Christmas when his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, told him he was being posted to fight the Taliban in Helmand province.
There he orchestrated fighter bomber strikes in his key role as a battlefield air controller.
Headlines yesterday testified to Prince Harry's pride in fighting for his country and his evident delight that his deployment was "about as normal as I'm ever going to get".
However, in a statement yesterday, the ministry of defence announced: "Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of Defence Staff, in consultation with General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately."
The statement said the decision by elements of the foreign media to report the prince's presence in Afghanistan without consultation with the ministry was regrettable. "However, this was a circumstance that we have always been aware of and one for which we have had contingency plans in place."
The statement continued: "Whilst it had been intended that Prince Harry should return in a matter of weeks with the remainder of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battlegroup, the situation has now clearly changed."
Although not unexpected, confirmation of that decision will have been a blow to Prince Harry, who was bitterly disappointed and contemplated leaving the army after last year's U-turn on plans to deploy him with the Blues and Royals to Iraq.
However, the prince, who is third in line to the throne, seems certain to return to Britain with hero status after an impressive series of pre-recorded interviews that will have enhanced his own reputation, refreshed popular support for the royal family and boosted the morale of his comrades in the armed forces.
The political importance of that was dramatically underlined yesterday with reports of a fresh US intelligence assessment suggesting that the US-led mission in Afghanistan could be close to failing and that President Hamid Karzai's government controls less than a third of the country.
While hotly denied by the Afghan government, the assessment by the US director of national intelligence, echoing recent reports by a number of think-tanks, could turn a fresh spotlight on a continuing British military commitment which some observers believe could eventually prove as difficult for prime minister Gordon Brown as Iraq was for Tony Blair.
Mr Brown said yesterday that Britons owed Prince Harry "a debt of gratitude" while defending the decision now to recall the prince. Queen Elizabeth, too, spoke of her pride in her grandson's "good job in a very difficult climate" during a visit to a care home at Windsor.
One of the residents, John Cooke (81), told the queen that he had guarded her during the second World War and praised Prince Harry's work.
That work, as a battlefield air controller known as Widow Six Seven, put the lives of other troops in Prince Harry's hands as he operated 500 yards from enemy positions, calling in air strikes and carrying out surveillance of Taliban fighters.
MI5, police and anti-terror chiefs will now be assessing the increased extremist threats likely facing the prince upon his return home.