Afghanistan attack: No pressure on Hungary

Prime Minister John Key says he will not put diplomatic pressure on Hungary to force its troops in Afghanistan to help stop attacks on New Zealand troops in the Bamiyan province.

Kiwi soldiers are extending their patrols further into the "badlands" east of Bamiyan to intercept insurgents responsible for an attack that killed two New Zealanders and injured six more.

The move was approved by Cabinet after a New Zealand base at Do Abe was attacked yesterday morning but there were no casualties.

Defence Force Chief Lieutenant General Rhys Jones described the attack as a "show of force".

He also named the two 26-year-old soldiers killed in a firefight with insurgents on Saturday night after they went to assist local police forces.

They were Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer of Christchurch and Rory Malone of Auckland. It was their first deployment to Afghanistan as part of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).

New Zealand troops will now patrol into the Baghlan province, which is used as a base for insurgents to attack inside Bamiyan.

Baghlan is the responsibility of Hungarian forces and Key was yesterday critical of their lack of patrols in the area and their refusal to patrol after dark.

"Hungarians don't go out at night - they might in Budapest, but not in Afghanistan."

However, the prime minister today ruled out seeking a change to the Hungarian's rules of engagement with either the Hungarian government, Nato or the International Security and Assistance Force.

"It's a legitimate question but the position the Hungarians have taken has been the position ever since they have been there," he told TV3's Firstline programme.

"So I don't think us applying pressure either directly or indirectly to the Hungarians will really change much."

The reluctance of the Hungarians to patrol their area had led to an increase in insurgent activity in recent years, Key said.

"It's a very hostile environment and it's a dangerous and difficult environment there."

Expanding the New Zealand troop's patrol was likely to disrupt the activities of insurgents and was not considered to put the soldiers at greater risk because they were more likely to stop the planting of road-side bombs, he said.

Kiwi troops have always been able to cross the border. After the death of Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell in 2010 the SAS had crossed the border in a raid on the insurgents responsible.

General Jones said the 140-strong PRT would be brought back to full strength but there was no need at this stage to redeploy the SAS.

Hungary sent troops into Afghanistan in 2003 and it currently has a special operations unit in the war-torn country and 413 soldiers in its PRT in Baghlan.

Seven of its soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, six of those in combat, the Paprikapolitik website reported.

A financial crisis led to a slight troop reduction in PRT numbers in late 2011 despite a worsening security situation, the website said.