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The Bhutanese royal is said to have played a key role in driving out rebels

Bhutan's crown prince is ready to return to Oxford University to resume his studies after fighting in the remote Himalayan kingdom's first war since 1865.

Last month, Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuk, 19, suddenly left St Peter's College where he was studying modern history, to join the Royal Bhutan Army's  offensive, codenamed Operation All Out, to drive out an estimated 3,000 Indian rebels holed up in the jungles of the tiny kingdom.

The rebels had been used the kingdom as a base to fight  New Delhi's rule in India's insurgency-wracked northeast.

The heir-apparent - nicknamed Jigs by classmates - became a student at Oxford after finishing high school in the United States. Senior Bhutanese and Indian officials said that he underwent intensive military training before enlisting to fight for his country.

'Regardless of who I am, I have taken an oath of allegiance to Bhutan's sovereignty', he told the royal government-owned Kuensel newspaper before leaving Oxford.

Bhutanese officials claim the English-educated King Wangchuk, 48, and the prince apparently led the troops from the front since mid-December in a battle  now almost over.

Significantly, journalists were not allowed access to battle zones during the war but were forced to rely almost totally on government briefings. There is no media freedom in Bhutan where internet and cable television were allowed in only five years ago.

The present king is the fourth hereditary monarch of the Wangchuk dynasty ruling Bhutan - wedged between China and India - since 1907.

When the fighting was at its height, a spokesman for the Bhutanese military said the prince was shot in the leg but the government subsequently denied that he was hit by a bullet.

Disclosing details of the prince's role, Bhutan's ambassador to India, Dago Tshering, said that he was in charge of guarding vital installations such as power plants, government offices, hospitals and educational institutions which rebels had threatened to blow up.

According to other unverified reports, he led the militia - hundreds of armed men and women assisting the army  and Royal Bhutan Guards in the military campaign. Last week, the teenaged prince described the successfully concluded military operation as 'almost perfect' to the university's student newspaper, while announcing plans to return to Oxford.

Neither Bhutan nor India have released casualty figures but almost all rebel camps are believed to have been destroyed.

New Delhi had been pressing Bhutan for years to take action against the rebels who staged  hit-and-run raids.



After the heat of battle, a crown prince resumes his studies at Oxford University