SAS in Afghanistan gun fight, says John Key

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Special Air Services (SAS) troops serving in Afghanistan were fired upon on Friday, in an incident which left at least 16 people dead, Prime Minister John Key said today.

"Up to 15 SAS personnel accompanied an Afghan unit responding to an incident where a car bomb had been exploded and then a building occupied by insurgents," Mr Key told reporters.

"During the incident, some members of the SAS were fired upon by insurgents, and they returned fire."

None of the about SAS personnel involved was injured in the incident, which was in an area of residential hotels in Kabul rented by Indian Embassy workers and other foreigners.

The violence followed attacks on India's Embassy in Afghanistan in July 2008 and October 2009.

Among the dead were six Indians and two other civilians, as well as the insurgents, who "blew themselves up" before they could be apprehended, Mr Key said.

The SAS last year returned to Afghanistan as part of an 18-month commitment, training an elite group of Afghan commandos known as the Crisis Response Unit.

Mr Key said then the SAS would not fight alongside the Afghans they would be training because it was "particularly dangerous".

However, this is the second incident they appear to have been involved in alongside the Afghans; in January, a photo was published in the NZ Herald of Victoria Cross winner Corporal Willie Apiata and an unidentified colleague taken moments after they came out of a building where three bodies were found.

The photos were taken by French freelance photographer Philip Poupin, who said the men were there to fight and he personally saw three dead bodies in the building they came out of.

Mr Key today said the SAS was in Afghanistan to "act on what is required of them".

"Some of that is combat, as I've said before."

- NZPA