Prince Harry to be withdrawn from Afghanistan

“It will be relatively quick, and it will be an ordered and dignified retreat, but there’s no need to rush it,” a source at the ministry said.

Harry, the son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana and third in line to the British throne, was made aware of the news leak shortly after it was broadcast around the world on a US Web site on Thursday.

The leak raised concern that Harry, who is on the front lines in Helmand, a dangerous province of southern Afghanistan, could become a “high-value target” for Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other Islamist militants.

Harry, 23, was deployed to fight against the Taliban in December, seven months after plans to send him to Iraq were scrapped following threats from Iraqi militants to kidnap or kill him.

The military posted him only after the British media and selected members of the international press agreed not to report his presence until he had returned from a scheduled four-month deployment. The embargo was broken on Thursday after German, Australian and US Web sites reported he was in Afghanistan.

The breaking of the embargo, a rare agreement in Britain’s usually free-for-all media environment, infuriated the military.

“Now that the story is in the public domain, the chief of staff and I will take advice from the operational commanders about whether his deployment can continue,” the head of the army, General Richard Dannatt, said.