Defence Secretary calls for ban on Taliban game

Britain's Defence Secretary Liam Fox has called for a ban on a new computer game in which participants can 'play' the Taliban. He told the Sunday Times he was "disgusted" by the forthcoming Medal of Honor video game and asked retailers to refuse to stock it because it is "un-British".

The latest version of the successful first-person shooting game, which is due out on October 15, is set during the war in Afghanistan. In the single-player mode a player follows US troops as they seek to defeat the Taliban.

But when gamers play Medal of Honor online with others, in the multi-player mode, they can take part as Taliban foot soldiers and gain points for killing Allied soldiers. A clip on YouTube shows a Taliban soldier fighting in southern Helmand province, where UK forces are currently based.

Fox told the Sunday Times that it was "shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers. At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands."

The makers of Medal of Honor, the California-based company Electronic Arts, argue that the game does not allow participants to kill British soldiers specifically, as Fox seemed to suggest.

A spokesman for the company also argued that war games have always involved two sides. “Most of us have been doing this since we were seven: someone plays the cop, someone must be robber. In Medal of Honor multi-player, someone's got to be the Taliban,"

This morning a spokeswoman for the Defence Secretary said he "stood by" his comments to the Sunday Times. "The point remains that part of this game allows you to play the part of the Taliban attacking ISAF troops in the area of central Helmand where British troops are operating." ·