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The former New Zealand defence minister has admitted for the first time that civilians were killed during a bungled raid by New Zealand SAS troops in Afghanistan in 2010.
- Dr Mapp says he first learned of the civilian deaths in a 2014 news report
- He says any previous comments by politicians were based on the best advice they were given
- His comments are in response to an explosive new book by NZ investigative reporters
For years, New Zealand politicians and military commanders denied this, claiming that the people killed were insurgents responsible for an earlier attack on the troops.
Today's comments by the former minister, Wayne Mapp, come less than 24 hours after the launch of an explosive new book Hit and Run by investigative reporters Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager.
The book claims the controversial operation killed six civilians and wounded 15.
The book also claims Dr Mapp had privately described the raid as a "disaster" and "fiasco". Today, he responded to New Zealand's Newshub saying: "At the time the raid took place the soldiers thought they were engaging with insurgents, that's how people were acting, that's what the report was at the time."
He said that he believed the New Zealand soldiers had genuinely felt under threat when the civilians were killed, but that: "One of the disasters of war is these terrible things can happen."
Dr Mapp said that he only became aware in 2014 that civilians had been killed when journalist Jon Stephenson revealed some details in a TV news report.
"In 2014 I was informed that, I saw it on TV in fact, that a three-year-old was killed. I'm sure everyone is remorseful about that. At the time of the attack they thought they were being attacked by insurgents," he said.
The book also states the raid was based on faulty intelligence and that New Zealand politicians and military figures have covered up the fact that civilians were killed.
Dr Mapp said any comments made by politicians previously, including New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, were based on the best advice they were given at the time.
His statements stand in contrast to his claims made in 2011, when he said that only insurgents were killed during the operation. Up until this point, the New Zealand Defence Force had repeatedly pointed to a 2011 statement in which it said a joint NATO/Afghan Government investigation had found allegations of civilian casualties were "unfounded".
Dr Mapp's comments will add impetus to calls in New Zealand for a full inquiry into the deadly operation.
The operation, which took place in Baghlan Province on August 22, 2010, was a response to an attack on a New Zealand patrol by Taliban fighters 19 days earlier that killed a New Zealand soldier, Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell.
The New Zealand SAS believed they would find the insurgents responsible.
The new book says New Zealand SAS troopers, backed by US helicopters and Afghan commandos, raided two villages but that ultimately 21 people were killed and wounded, none of whom were insurgents and most of whom were women and children.
The book suggests most were killed by the US helicopter gunships, but that some of the bodies showed signs that suggested they might have been killed by New Zealand snipers in the hills around the villages.
The book's co-author Nicky Hager told ABC's The World that whistle-blowers who witnessed the operation told them soldiers "lost their heads" after witnessing a colleague killed in combat for the first time.
"They were angry, they were in a vengeful mood and so their common sense failed them," he said, adding that when they got to their target they burnt and blew up civilian houses.
Despite having seen evidence that proved their targeting was off, Hager alleged the unit returned to the town days later after hearing houses were being rebuilt, including some belonging to insurgent’s families.
"So they went back on a second raid and they just blew up more houses that time as well."
Hager and Stephenson say the New Zealand Defence Force was aware almost immediately that no insurgents were amongst the dead, but has continued to insist to this day that only Taliban fighters were killed in the raid.
The book's revelations come as the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force conducts an investigation into the culture of Australian special forces units, including allegations of unlawful killings in Afghanistan
Topics: defence-forces, defence-and-national-security, afghanistan, new-zealand
First posted