Taleban ambush targeted newly arrived NZ troops

The New Zealand convoy, in vehicles similar to these, was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Fifteen Taleban then descended on the Kiwis and opened fire. Photo / NZ Defence Force

New Zealand troops were fortunate not to be killed in a Taleban ambush deliberately set up to unsettle them just days after their arrival in Afghanistan.

The insurgents hit the patrol convoy with rocket-propelled grenades before firing bullets into their windscreens as they reversed up a one-lane road in the mountainous Bamiyan province.

The Taleban then mounted a further attack before the New Zealanders were bailed out by two American Apache helicopter gunships.

Joint Forces commander Air Vice-Marshal Peter Stockwell said the militants had targeted the new troops knowing the latest rotation of the Provincial Reconstruction Team arrived late last month.

"The insurgents knew there was a new team in town and they may well have decided they would put them to the test."

The troops escaped without casualties, but it is not known if any Taleban were killed or injured.

The 12-man New Zealand patrol shot back at the Taleban during the Sunday morning ambush.

The province is becoming increasingly dangerous, and Afghanistan itself is in turmoil, with a re-run of its corrupt presidential election due to be held on Saturday.

Air Vice-Marshal Stockwell said the four-vehicle convoy was patrolling in the dangerous north-eastern corner of the province and on a link road through a steep valley that had "vulnerable points".

The lead vehicle was hit by what the troops initially believed was a roadside bomb, known as an improvised explosive device (IED) - the most common killer of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Air Vice-Marshal Stockwell said the explosion was actually a rocket-propelled grenade, and the group of 15 insurgents then descended on the convoy and opened fire. One or two grenades were also fired.

He said the attack split the convoy, with two vehicles going forward and the other two forced to reverse away because the road was too narrow.

The convoy was made up of a Humvee on loan from the United States and three Toyota utes modified with bullet- and bomb-proof armour.

Air Vice-Marshal Stockwell said the troops escaped with a degree of luck, but also with good tactics in "returning fire and suppressing the ambush".

Both sets of vehicles found safe areas and called in support from nearby New Zealand patrols and the Americans, who sent the two Apaches as well as a Blackhawk helicopter up from Kabul.

The reinforcement New Zealand patrol cleared the road, but Air Vice-Marshal Stockwell said the insurgents found the two vehicles that had reversed out of the ambush and mounted a second attack about an hour later.

The Apaches were in the area by that point and able to swoop on the attackers. The Blackhawk was there in case medical evacuation was necessary.

Air Vice-Marshal Stockwell said the second stage of the attack was another sign of the insurgents' organisation and determination.

"They weren't just taking some pot shots and heading off into the hills."

The north-eastern corner of Bamiyan has been the scene of almost all the trouble troops from the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction team have faced.

The road links the towns of Do Abe, where troops exchanged fire in June in the only other attack they have faced, and Ghandak, where New Zealand police assisted in the capture of Taleban leader Mullah Borhan in August. There also have been a number of IED attacks in the area.

Air Vice-Marshal Stockwell said the troops were already back on patrol.

* Kiwi reconstruction force under fire

JUNE 24, 2009

A New Zealand patrol in Afghanistan exchanged fire with insurgents attacking an Afghanistan National Police (ANP) compound in Do Abe. The 15-minute exchange, involving six to eight unidentified attackers firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, took place about 50km northeast of the New Zealand Army base in Bamiyan. The New Zealand provincial reconstruction team and ANP officers returned fire, with the soldiers calling in air support. The insurgents then withdrew, with no casualties reported by the New Zealand fighters, the ANP officers or local people.

AUGUST 2

New Zealand troops help capture a Taleban leader responsible for roadside bombings and a recent attack on a police station.

Mullah Borhan, former governor of Bamiyan province where New Zealand's provincial reconstruction team is based, was captured after insurgents attacked the home of a district government official in Ghandak, about 25 kilometres from the Kiwi base.

New Zealand provincial reconstruction troops were not directly involved in the arrest but a patrol in the area provided support by setting up an outer cordon.

It was the most significant arrest in the area in the six years that New Zealand troops had been stationed in Bamiyan.