Prince Harry criticised for 'boasting' about killing Taliban fighters, comments 'let down' other soldiers

Prince Harry has come under fire, again, for "boasting" about killing Taliban soldiers while serving in Afghanistan.

UK defence secretary Ben Wallace says the Duke of Sussex's comments, made in his book Spare, "distorts" the idea that the British Army is a team.

Wallace's remarks appear to be the first time the British government has directly criticised the royal for his revelations, more than a month after the memoir was published.

READ MORE: 'Unless they want to be mocked forever, the Sussexes have two choices'

In Spare, Prince Harry recalled his time as a gunner in an Apache attack helicopter while on his second tour of Afghanistan.

He said technology within the helicopters made it possible to establish "with exactness how many enemy combatants I had killed".

"And it seemed to me essential not to be afraid of that number," Harry wrote.

"So my number is 25. It's not a number that fills me with satisfaction, but nor does it embarrass me."

During an interview with LBC, Wallace was asked how many people he had killed during his time in the armed forces.

He said: "Look, I think you'd have to ask Prince Harry… I frankly think boasting about tallies or talking about tallies does two things.

"It distorts the fact that the army is a team game. For an infanteer to go over the top, that person is supported by hundreds of people behind them, whether they're in headquarters in Britain, whether they're in the royal logistic corps, who helped them get there.

READ MORE: Camilla criticises censorship of Roald Dahl's books

"It's a team, and so it's not about who can shoot the most or who doesn't shoot the most.

"If you start talking about who did what, what you are actually doing is letting down all those other people, because you're not a better person because you did and they didn't."

After Spare was published, Prince Harry was widely condemned for his comments with security experts warning he jeopardised the safety of himself and the wider royal family.

The UK's former former defence secretary Lord John Hutton previously called Harry's comments "inappropriate and wrong on every level" and "a very serious mistake".

He said the comments were "not what we expect from someone who has held the positions of authority and responsibility".

READ MORE: Danish princess breaks silence about move to the US

But Prince Harry defended himself while speaking on American television during the promotional tour for his book.

Speaking with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, Harry said he never boasted about killing members of the Taliban, rather it was the media who distorted the story by telling it without context.

"Without a doubt, the most dangerous lie that they [the media] have told is that I somehow boasted about the number of people that I killed in Afghanistan," he told Colbert.

"If I heard anyone boasting about that kind of thing, I would be angry. But it's a lie. And hopefully now that the book is out, people will be able to see the context.

"It's really troubling and very disturbing that they can get away with it.

"They had the context. It wasn't like, 'Here's just one line.' They had the whole section, they ripped it away and just said, 'Here it is. He's boasting on this.' ... And that's dangerous.

"My words are not dangerous, but the spin of my words are very dangerous."