Friendly fire possible, but no official apology

The Prime Minister and Chief of Defence Force have not entirely discounted the possibility that "friendly fire" from Afghan forces was responsible for injuring two SAS commandos in Kabul last week but say it is unlikely.

They have denied receiving any official apology from Afghan authorities for any such action - leaving open the possibility that an individual soldier may have received an informal apology from an Afghan colleague.

Two SAS soldiers were injured last week in responding with the Afghan Crisis Response Unit to a terrorist raid on the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul by militants wearing suicide vests and carrying grenade launchers.

Up to 22 were killed, thought to include nine attackers and two Afghan police.

The SAS work closely with the CRU, an arm of the Afghan police.

Lieutenant General Rhys Jones yesterday expressed concern about the media coverage of the event, including a detailed breakdown of the clothing warn by the New Zealand special forces, drawn from an AFP photograph of soldiers leaving the scene.

"A single image has led to speculation about our capabilities, which in turn can lead to the development of tactics to counter our effectiveness," the defence chief said.

"The situation is exacerbated by our operations in Kabul occurring under a media spotlight which makes discreet activity even more difficult."

Reports by BBC correspondent Bilal Sarwary have led to speculation that the injuries were from friendly fire and that the Interior Minister had apologised to the SAS soldiers.

General Jones said: "I do not have the luxury of being able to speculate; the information I require has to be as exact as possible.

"We have no evidence to suggest that any of their injuries were the result of friendly fire, although we cannot categorically rule that out," he said.

"Reporting from our troops indicate that the injuries were the result of insurgent action. What I can categorically state is that the Defence Force has not received any apology from Afghan authorities."

A spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry said there was no evidence to confirm the injuries were the result of friendly fire.

"We had all the information about the attack and we released that information at the next morning," Sediq Sediqqi told Firstline. "That was all the information we had about the incident."

Mr Sediqqi said the incident was still being investigated and any more information about the attack would be made public.

"We are trying to find out and see what were the shot falls, what were the security lapses and how these attackers were able to enter the premises."

At his post-Cabinet press conference, John Key said it was possible there had been friendly fire "but that was not the likely source". He added: "There has been no official apology."

Asked if the New Zealand troops might have been responsible for "friendly fire", Mr Key said he had not been advised of that.

Mr Key also gently chided General Jones for being slow in briefing him about the involvement of the SAS.

Mr Key was in India at the time and he looked foolish after telling a press conference there five hours after the terrorist attack had begun that he did not believe the SAS had been involved because if they had been, he would have been told by then.

Yesterday he said: "I have made it clear to CDF and others that where something is in the public domain, as that was, we just need to slightly tighten up our engagement in terms of communication."

Mr Key incorrectly claimed yesterday that at the time he held the press conference in Delhi the SAS had not been involved beyond a mentoring role. In fact, the SAS had been heavily involved in a combat role before then with the unit firing at the terrorists.

- NZ Herald staff