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LONDON: Britain’s Prince William, second-in-line to the throne,
visited troops in Afghanistan this weekend, less than a month after
his younger brother finished a tour of duty there, a spokesman said
Tuesday.
“He flew out as part of the air crew of a C-17
transport plane on Sunday morning, and landed in Kandahar where he
spent about three hours on the ground being briefed on the
operations of the RAF and the base there,” the spokesman for the
25-year-old royal told Agence France-Presse.
He added that Prince William then flew in
another military transport plane to a Royal Air Force base in Qatar
where he spent around two hours being briefed before flying back to
Britain on Monday afternoon.
The spokesman said the trip had been planned for
some time.
“He’s been on attachment with the RAF for
three months, and learning how the RAF operates across the different
aspects of the service. The culmination of that was to see the RAF
in theatre,” he said.
The trip, which took around 30 hours in total,
“passed without a hitch”, the spokesman said.
Prince William’s visit to Afghanistan came a
little more than a month after his younger brother Harry completed a
10-week posting in the country, the first time a British royal saw
frontline action since the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.
Earlier this month, Prince William received his
wings for graduating as an RAF pilot from his father Prince Charles
after a faster-than-usual training course.
-- AFP
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