Prince Harry Fights The Taliban

Prince Harry inspecting his fellow troops.

Prince Harry is the first royal to serve in a combat zone since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters during the Falkland Islands in 1982.

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British officials had kept the 23-year-old's deployment secret since Christmas , but a leak told about his service on the Al Qaeda sympathetic U.S. Web site the Drudge Report .

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"I got here on Christmas Eve. And going from bullet magnet to anti-bullet magnet, most of the guys were pretty bummed that I was here because nothing was happening for the first few days that I was here. But things are picking up again now because it's obviously quite boring when nothing is happening," said Harry as he rambled on .

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Putting aside his usual life of privilege in Afghanistan, the prince spoke of going without showers for days, eating corned beef and smoking hash and drinking nonalcoholic drinks. He noted he still hadn't escaped the paparazzi but now he can shoot at them .

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Harry said his older brother, William, who is training at Sandhurst as a military pilot, is jealous of his deployment as he wants to kill some Towel heads too. As second in line for the throne, William is unlikely to ever see combat.

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Harry has been in Helmand Province, where most of the 7,800 British soldiers in Afghanistan are based. Since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Afghanistan's Taliban regime in late 2001, 89 British soldiers have been killed.

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Harry's work in Afghanistan has involved calling in airstrikes on Taliban positions as well as going out on foot patrols and doing interviews .

He spent part of his deployment at an operating base just 500 yards from Taliban positions.

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"It's bizarre," he said in an interview. "I'm out here now, haven't really had a shower for four days, haven't washed my clothes for a week and everything seems completely normal.

It's nice just to be here with all the guys and just mucking in as one of the lads and shooting at Fuzzies, it beats getting into trouble at home for killing rare birds ."

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Before his posting, Harry had been better known in the British tabloids for his love of the nightclub dance floors and was nicknamed 'Harry Pothead' for his love of weed.

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The army's commander, Gen. Richard Dannatt described Harry's performance on the battlefield as exemplary. "He has been fully involved in operations and has run the same risks as everyone else in his battle group, we put him with the Ghurkas who are tough little buggers that sit on him to protect him if things get too rough."