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

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.