PM's secret sortie

John Key wore a body-armour jacket and helmet as he arrived in Kabul. Photo / Maggie Tait

KABUL: Wearing body armour and a helmet, Prime Minister John Key has spent the past three days in war-torn Afghanistan on a top-secret visit to New Zealand troops.

"This is a dangerous place and I am asking New Zealanders to come here and represent New Zealand but in doing that, to put their own lives on the line. I am not prepared to send people to a destination I am not prepared to come to myself," Mr Key said.

He met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the commander of the International Security Assistance Force, General Stanley McChrystal.

On arrival in Kabul, the PM was flown to meet New Zealand Special Air Service soldiers, and on Sunday went to Bamiyan to meet troops in the Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Speaking outside the British Embassy in Kabul, where he stayed, Mr Key said the intense security around him made him feel safe, but "in the end everybody's at risk".

The New Zealand delegation wore body armour and helmets while travelling in armoured vehicles accompanied by armed troops, and Mr Key's vehicle moved in a motorcade.

The Prime Minister said another motivation was to make his own assessment of the work of the 70-plus SAS contingent due to leave in March and the 140 troops in Bamiyan whose rotation ends in September. He is considering extending both.

His trip was planned months ago but was kept secret.

"The reason for that is around my personal security and the security of the people that travel with me. The Chief of the Defence Force [Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae], even you as journalists, would be at greater risk if people knew that I was here because we would be a juicy target."

Mr Key was due to arrive back in Dubai overnight.

Former prime minister Helen Clark visited Afghanistan under a shroud of secrecy and, more recently, US President Barack Obama did the same.

The Herald has known about the trip for two weeks but agreed to keep it confidential for security reasons.

The Prime Minister's office said that if news of the journey broke ahead of time, it would be cancelled.

Mr Key said President Karzai was grateful for New Zealand's contribution to the international force.

Asked what the chances were of the war against Taleban insurgents being won almost nine years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, he said that although it was "too early to say we're winning", progress was being made.

"I think there's been a definite change of emphasis under General McChrystal. If you go back three, four, five years ago, it was a war that was recorded by the body bags and the count of the number of Taleban that were being killed.

"That's completely changed and now it's very much about the hearts and minds of people being won and whether Afghans themselves want to stand up and say, 'We want to run our country and we don't want the Taleban running things'."

Mr Key said the world could not ignore the threat of al Qaeda, and letting Afghanistan fail would give it back a base to plan international terrorist acts and re-install a Taleban regime.

"The enemy is al Qaeda, really. The Taleban is a domestic focus.

"They may be a torrid and horrid regime but in terms of the real enemy, that's al Qaeda and it's al Qaeda's capability to plot the equivalent of 9/11 or the London bombings or the Bali bombings.

"The intelligence we have is the work that we are doing here in Afghanistan has stopped them from being allowed to use Afghanistan to plot that sort of global terrorist effort."

Mr Key said the importance to global solidarity of New Zealand's involvement was "huge".

"The New Zealanders are very good at what they do. Even if their numbers are not as big as the Americans and the Brits and others, they have played a hugely successful and a tremendous role here. Everywhere we go ... they have been complimented on what they do."

Front line

Afghanistan:
* Occupied since October 2001.
* 46 countries have 102,554 troops there.
* US has 62,415, or 60.8 per cent.
* All troops are under the International Security Assistance Force, led by Nato.

New Zealand SAS:
* On fourth deployment to Afghanistan since 2001.
* This time for 18 months, now in second of three rotations of six months.
* About 70 troops, based in Kabul.
* Cabinet has given approval for them to stay until March.

Army:
* About 140 in Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamiyan province.
* Team has been there since 2003.
* Has formal Cabinet approval to stay until September.
* Extension expected as troops are phased out over five years to let civilian administration take over.

Source: ISAF

- NZPA