Kiwi troops in Kabul battle

Reuters

BOMB BLAST: At least 14 people were killed and 32 wounded in Friday's bombing. Up to 15 SAS were involved.

Kiwi troops appeared calm amid the mayhem when they walked into a 90-minute gunfight in central Kabul, a witness says.

Up to 15 SAS troops shot and wounded Afghan insurgents who attacked a hotel with bombs. Prime Minister John Key said it was believed to be the first time New Zealanders had fired a shot in battle while in Afghanistan.

French photographer Lionel de Coninck, who was at the scene of the gunfight in a Kabul hotel on Friday, said: "It's a big mess. You have all these uniformed cops, then the military police then the civilian police, it's mayhem.

"Everyone is running in and out, cars are driving in and out, everyone's running everywhere and only a few people know what's happening.

"The shooting was already going on for an hour, and then [the SAS troops] came in, it lasted another hour, an hour and a half, and then they walked out. They were just walking quietly in and walking quietly out. Calmly. They had the same faces [afterwards], the same walk."

He said the Kiwis were all wearing helmets, but he recognised them from an earlier operation in Kabul on January 18, when Victoria Cross-winner Corporal Willie Apiata was photographed leaving the scene of a gunfight. Corporal Apiata was later censured for revealing his face.

Mr de Coninck said he did not see Corporal Apiata on Friday.

Yesterday, Mr Key said that up to 15 Special Air Service personnel had gone with an Afghan unit to a car bomb explosion. Insurgents had then occupied a building and fired on the Kiwis.

The New Zealanders shot at and, it was believed, wounded the insurgents.

"The SAS are there to act on what is required of them and some of that is combat," Mr Key said.

Eight civilians were killed by the insurgent bomb. Mr Key said it was believed eight insurgents blew themselves up before they could be caught.

The incident was described as the biggest in the Afghan capital since the January 18 incident, when Taleban gunmen launched a brazen attack centred around Kabul's biggest shopping centre. The fighting spread to a nearby hotel, guesthouse and some government buildings.

Two new Kiwi civilian appointments are due to be announced for Afghanistan later this month. A head of mission will be appointed in Kabul and an adviser added to the reconstruction team in Bamiyan.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully is due to travel to Kabul for an international summit later this year.

He has offered conditional support to a new diplomatic strategy in Afghanistan, which seeks to win over borderline Taleban insurgents with offers of jobs.

- © Fairfax NZ News