NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

NZSAS raid: Errors emerge in location and names of Hit & Run villages

David Fisher
By David Fisher
Senior writer·NZ Herald·
28 Mar, 2017 10:48 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Camera footage from a helicopter used during SAS raids in Afghanistan has been cited by the Chief of Defence Force in a vigorous defence of New Zealand actions. Lieutenant General Tim Keating fronted media today and, standing before maps of the Tirgiran Valley area where the 2010 raids occurred, outlined the reasons why allegations by journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson are wrong.

Both the NZDF and the authors of the Hit & Run book have been told by the villagers said to have been on the receiving end of a deadly attack that they have got the location and the names wrong - but maintain six civilians were killed.

In a letter to Prime Minister Bill English, lawyer Richard McLeod said: "Our clients are locals and residents of this area, and of course they know the names of the villages in which they live."

The lawyers also say that NZDF has botched details of the location of the villages but that their clients have agreed with the military that the raid happened in the area identified at a NZ Defence Force briefing this week.

Hit & Run, by authors Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson, claimed the NZ Special Air Service (SAS) carried out a raid in August 2010 on the villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad, which killed six civilians and injured 15.

NZDF said the NZSAS had never operated in those villages but instead carried out a raid on nearby Tirgiran Village 2km away.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

NZDF said the mission was not one of "revenge", as the authors claimed, but to remove a threat to New Zealand's Provincial Reconstruction Team in neighbouring Bamiyan province.

Two weeks before the raid, New Zealand suffered its first casualty in Afghanistan when Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell was killed in a raid believed to have come from combatants in the Tirgiran Valley.​

McLeod said their clients had viewed the NZDF material and claimed it contained major inaccuracies.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"'Tirgiran' is not a village, and therefore 'Tirgiran Village' does not exist," the letter stated.

Instead, McLeod's letter said Naik and Khak Khuday Dad villages were inside the area on NZDF's map that identified the target areas for the NZSAS raid.

The villages labelled by NZDF - and also by Hit & Run - as Naik and Khak Khuday Dad - had been labelled incorrectly and were actually villages called Beidak and Khakandy, respectively.

McLeod's letter said: "Tirgiran is the name of the river valley and the greater area depicted on the NZDF map, and the Naik and Khak Khuday Dad villages are within Tirgiran Valley.

Discover more

New Zealand

SAS soldier: We killed civilians

23 Mar 04:00 PM
New Zealand|politics

Camera footage 'shows SAS claims wrong'

27 Mar 02:27 AM
New Zealand|politics

Nine killed had weapons: Army email

28 Mar 04:00 PM
New Zealand|politics

A full guide to SAS raid claims, denials

31 Mar 04:00 PM

"To be completely clear, there is no separate settlement of any kind named "Tirgiran Village", anywhere in the Tirgiran Valley."

The letter was made public by the lawyers shortly before the release of an "analysis" by Hager of the NZDF press conference this week.

In it, he confirms that the book places the villages in the wrong location but said NZDF was wrong on all other major points.

He wrote: "Our conclusion is that the NZDF criticisms are wrong - with one exception - and that they have failed to address almost everything of substance in the book. This is what a cover-up looks like."

Hager said the "location of the raid and the villages is indeed slightly different to what our local sources told us".

But he said it "does not change the story in any significant way".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He said the names of the villages were correct and "all the rest of the story in the book is unchanged".

"Likewise the photos in the book of the villages attacked in the raid are correct, as are the photos of the victims and destroyed houses."

Hager said NZDF had "leaped on" the discrepancy around the location of the raid and "tried to sow doubt about the rest of the book".

"Keating said the 'central premise' of the book was incorrect; that there were 'major inaccuracies - the main one being the location'. But the location is a minor detail, difficult to establish in mountains with no roads or detailed maps.

"Contrary to what Keating said, the central premise of the book is that the actions of the
SAS and its allies in the villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad led to civilian deaths and injuries, destruction of houses, neglect of wounded people and then a cover-up - and none of that has changed.​"

Hager said Keating had not responded to allegations in the book in any detailed way to allow them to be measured against what was in Hit & Run.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But he said there was an important confirmation that the NZSAS were responsible for calling in air support.

Hager said it contradicted an earlier statement in which "ministers suggested that if there had been any civilian deaths they were the responsibility of the United States' pilots, not the New Zealand SAS".

"It confirms what we said in the book: that the SAS commanders in charge of the raid have responsibility for deaths and injuries caused by the US attack helicopters, which they controlled and had requested to be part of the raid."

The letter from the lawyers and Hager's statement repeated calls for an independent inquiry.

Prime Minister Bill English today made his strongest comments defending New Zealand's military against allegations contained in the book, saying it's not up to officials to disprove every claim made by Hager and Stephenson.

English also revealed the camera footage cited by the Chief of Defence as proof SAS raids in Afghanistan were properly conducted belongs to the US military.

"It is one piece of record of the operation. My understanding is that video is something that belongs to the US defence forces," English told Newstalk ZB.

"It may or may not be possible for that to be released. They are responsible to their national command, not to us. That is the sort of issue that the CDF is working through."

Although there was no case for an inquiry into alleged war crimes, English said Keating was required by law to consider other allegations "and make a decision on whether there is basis for an inquiry, and he is still working through that".

"The presence of the allegations does not require the Defence Force to rebut or refute them in every single way. It is up to the people making the allegations to prove, as they stated when they launched the book, that war crimes were committed. They haven't reached that threshold."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Model railway enthusiasts bring farming history to life

17 May 05:01 PM
Premium
Editorial

Editorial: A delusional alternative budget from Greens is what we've come to expect

17 May 05:00 PM
New Zealand

Vege tips: Why every gardener needs a worm farm

17 May 05:00 PM

The Hire A Hubby hero turning handyman stereotypes on their head

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Model railway enthusiasts bring farming history to life

Model railway enthusiasts bring farming history to life

17 May 05:01 PM

Club initially used ex-dairy farmer and life member Brian Harvey’s hobby room and shed.

Vege tips: Why every gardener needs a worm farm

Vege tips: Why every gardener needs a worm farm

17 May 05:00 PM
Premium
Editorial: A delusional alternative budget from Greens is what we've come to expect

Editorial: A delusional alternative budget from Greens is what we've come to expect

17 May 05:00 PM
Premium
Letters: New Zealand was at its wealthiest with a smaller population

Letters: New Zealand was at its wealthiest with a smaller population

17 May 05:00 PM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search