Prince Harry says in new book he killed 25 people while serving in Afghanistan: 'It's not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me'

• Prince Harry revealed that he killed 25 people while serving in Afghanistan.
• The Telegraph obtained an excerpt of the book ahead of its release.

Prince Harry wrote in his upcoming memoir "Spare" that he killed more than two dozen people in Afghanistan after the army taught him not to view members of the Taliban as people, according to The Telegraph, which obtained an excerpt of the book.

While he wrote he is "neither proud nor ashamed," his confession is likely to make him and his family a bigger terrorist target, The Independent reported, citing several critics including a publicist, a journalist, and a former commando.

"In the era of Apaches and laptops," Harry said he was able to come up "with exactness how many enemy combatants I had killed. And it seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number."

The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex served as a forward air controller in the British Royal Army from 2007-2008 and piloted the attack helicopter between 2012-2013, Al Jazeera reported.

"It seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number. So my number is 25. It's not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me," he wrote, adding that the number came from six missions during his second tour in the country.

Harry claimed that the army engrained the idea that the Taliban members he was fighting against were "chess pieces" in him.

"I made it my purpose, from day one, to never go to bed with any doubt whether I had done the right thing… whether I had shot at Taliban and only Taliban, without civilians in the vicinity. I wanted to return to Great Britain with all my limbs, but more than that I wanted to get home with my conscience intact," Harry wrote.

Harry's reps did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Penguin Random House, the book's publisher, has not widely shared excerpts of the memoir ahead of its January 10, 2023 publication, but the Telegraph wrote that it obtained a Spanish-language copy of the book from a Spanish bookstore.

His memoir also revealed a time when Prince William attacked him during an argument over Meghan Markle, claimed that the royal family wants to view him and his wife as "villains," and detailed how Harry lost his virginity to an older woman.