WHATEVER the royal family may think of his exploits in Las Vegas, many Britons can barely hide their support for Prince Harry, posting naked pictures of themselves online in tribute.

A Facebook group entitled Support Prince Harry with a naked salute! – featuring people posing in various states of undress saluting the third-in-line to the throne – has won 13,000 members and is still growing.

The group sprang up after Harry, 27, was photographed naked with a mystery woman during a game of “strip billiards” in a Las Vegas hotel suite.

The images, first published on a US website last Wednesday, rapidly went viral and caused a furore in Britain.

But supporters have posted a flood of images of themselves saluting while in various states of undress – often with strategically placed props including Union Jack flags, backpacks and teddy bears.

The Sun newspaper published photographs on Tuesday of what it said were British soldiers serving in Afghanistan, posing naked and saluting Prince Harry.

Harry, an army officer and a trained Apache helicopter pilot, served in Afghanistan for 10 weeks, but was pulled out in February 2008 after a media blackout broke down.

Sun is the only British newspaper to have published the nude snaps of Harry, in defiance of orders from the royal family to respect the prince’s privacy and restrain from printing them.

Britain’s Press Complaints Commission has received about 3600 complaints over The Sun’s decision to publish the nude photos.

The online show of support for Harry came as it was announced he will be the patron of a charity race to the South Pole between three teams of wounded servicemen from around the world.

Source: heraldsun.com.au