Prince Harry’s dreams of taking on the Taliban in an Apache helicopter in war-ravaged Afghanistan is said to have been shattered, after his instructors told him that he is not suited to fly the chopper.

The third-in-line to the British throne is feeling somewhat downhearted after being told he is unlikely to fulfil his dream of fighting the “Terry Taliban” (in Afghanistan) in an Apache, the Sunday Express reported.

“He had hoped to become a top gun Apache pilot but he’s been told that the instructors feel he is not suited to the Apache,” a source was quoted as saying. Instead the prince is likely to be trained to fly the more sedate Lynx when he moves soon to his next posting at the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop in Hampshire, the British newspaper said.

“Even as a Lynx pilot there’s no chance he’ll be returning to the front line until 2012 at the earliest,” the unnamed source was quoted as saying.

Two years ago, Prince Harry had served the British Army in Afghanistan. He was working in Helmand province as a Forward Air Controller — responsible for providing cover for frontline troops — and also involved in clashes with Taliban. But he was recalled after the news of his four-month deployment in 2007, after the news leaked out.

‘Queen will be forced to wear burkha’

LONDON: Radical Muslims seeking to introduce Sharia laws in the UK have said the British Queen would be forced to wear a burkha in public, according to a media report. Abu Rumaysah, spokesman for pro-sharia campaigners Islam4UK, said the Queen would be forced to cover up in public from head to foot, with only her eyes visible. “If the Queen decides to go outside she is to cover herself like every other woman,” Amjem Choudary, an extremist Islamist leader, was quoted as saying by the Daily Express. Choudary is the right-hand man of exiled Islamist cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed. PTI