Substitute: Prince Harry targets New Idea after revealing he is fighting in Afghanistan

In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry addressed the Australian gossip magazine that broke a global media embargo and forced its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Duke of Sussex’s first deployment to Afghanistan was cut short in February 2008 after New Idea revealed he was fighting the Taliban in Helmand province.

This original journal report was followed up in the United States by Matt Drudge’s Drudge Report news website.

Harry, in his new memoir Spare, recalls the moment his commanding officer, whom he only calls “Colonel Ed,” told him how a media embargo had been broken over his posting on the other side of the world.

Prince Harry has accused New Idea and an American reporter of sharing a story published in an “inconsequential” Australian magazine about his presence in Afghanistan that forced his withdrawal from the war zone. He is pictured in Helmand province in February 2008

The Duke of Sussex’s first mission to Afghanistan was cut short in February 2008 after the famous gossip magazine New Idea revealed that he was fighting the Taliban in Helmand province. He is pictured before a Scottish service honoring those killed in Afghanistan in June 2008

“An Australian magazine picked up the story and told everyone I was in Afghanistan,” he writes.

“The magazine was inconsequential, so at first nobody noticed the story, until a few [journalist] in the US read the article, posted it on his C***py website and the trackers caught him.

Harry writes that Colonel Ed apologized that he had to be evacuated and almost begged the young prince to stay, but knew he couldn’t for the safety of those around him.

“Now that the Lebanese knew I was in the country and approximately where, they would use all their strength to eliminate me,” he writes.

Harry, in his new memoir Spare, recalls the moment his commanding officer, whom he only calls “Colonel Ed,” told him how a media embargo had been broken over his posting on the other side of the world. Harry is pictured with wife Meghan

After shaking hands with Colonel Ed, Harry left his tent, gathered his things and said goodbye to some of his comrades. He then boarded a Chinook helicopter and was in Kandahar an hour later.

The MoD said it was too dangerous for the 23-year-old to complete the last month of his 14-week rotation.

“This decision was made primarily on the basis that global media coverage of Prince Harry could have an impact on the safety of those deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier,” the statement said.

New Idea later apologized for breaking the media blackout over Harry’s presence in Afghanistan.

“We regret this serious miscalculation,” the editor said.

“We sincerely apologize to all of our readers, to the soldiers whose lives are constantly at risk while on duty at home and abroad, and to their families and loved ones.”

“The magazine was trivial, so at first nobody noticed the story until some asshole in the US read the article, posted it on his c***py website, and the trackers caught him.” Harry writes in Spare. The prince is pictured with a machine gun in January 2008

Harry, who returned to Afghanistan on Apache attack helicopters in 2012, has revealed in Spare that he killed 25 Taliban during that second tour.

He was widely criticized by ex-soldiers for revealing the number of insurgents he killed, which he described as “pawns removed from the board”.

During a trip to Australia in June 2017, Harry said he felt “guilty” about being evacuated from Afghanistan because New Idea revealed where he was based.

“I could not stay with my soldiers any longer as it would have put them at greater risk,” he said in Sydney at the time.

“It was a decision I had no control over, but the guilt of having to leave my boys behind was something I found difficult to swallow, as anyone who served would understand.

“It was that flight home from Afghanistan that set me on the path to founding the Invictus Games.”

After shaking Colonel Ed’s hand, Harry left his tent, gathered his things and said goodbye to his comrades. He then boarded a Chinook helicopter and was in Kandahar an hour later. Harry sits on his cot at a Forward Operations Base in January 2008

It wasn’t until he was preparing to board the plane in Kandahar that Harry first realized the devastation the conflict was causing.

“While we were waiting for boarding, a coffin of a young Danish soldier was brought onto the plane, and three soldiers in an induced coma, all three wrapped in plastic, some with limbs missing and tubes coming out everywhere,” he said.

“The sacrifices we ask of our men and women struck me so powerfully in those moments.”

On a trip to the Warrior Games in the United States in 2013, Harry saw how sport can help soldiers who had been physically and emotionally injured by war.

This visit inspired him and the Invictus Games was born.