SAS hero opens up on Kabul hotel siege, NZ troops twice targeted by friendly fire

• A new book from ex-SAS commander Jamie Pennell lifts the lid on a secretive Kiwi unit’s Afghanistan operations, including the deadly Kabul hotel siege.
• Troops made a mercy dash into the hotel to save staff and guests from being beheaded and thrown from the roof.
• A unit member was lucky to survive after taking the ‘full blast’ of a Taliban terrorist’s explosive vest.
• The veteran says the Commonwealth’s highest decoration for valour – the Victoria Cross – should have been awarded to Steve Askin.

A highly decorated ex-NZSAS trooper has revealed how he and colleagues were almost killed by friendly fire during the bloody Kabul Intercontinental Hotel siege in 2011.

And the former soldier – who was awarded New Zealand’s second-highest bravery award for his actions during the battle – has also described a teammate’s miracle survival after a Taliban attacker detonated a suicide vest just metres from him.

In his new book, Serviceman J: The Untold Story of an NZSAS Soldier, ex-commander Jamie Pennell has revealed never-before-released details of the high-profile attack launched by nine Taliban insurgents armed with assault rifles, machine guns, RPGs and wearing explosive suicide vests.

Twelve people – including hotel staff and security – were killed before the Taliban attackers were either shot or blew themselves up.

Pennell has written how his group were twice fired upon by friendly forces, including the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, while on the hotel roof and then on a balcony.

“Had it not been for the fact that the rails around the balcony had reinforced on concrete slabs on the inside of them, we wouldn’t have made it out alive,” wrote Pennell – who was known as Serviceman J to protect his privacy when his bravery award was revealed – in his book.

“I thought, I hope to god they’re not going to shoot the fifty-cals [weapons that fire armour-piercing 50-calibre bullets], because if they are, we’re gone.

Former NZSAS commander Jamie Pennell - who was awarded a top bravery award for his actions in Afghanistan - has written a tell-all book on his time in the elite unit. Photo / Supplied

“Looking up at the wall, I could see chips coming off the concrete and feel the vibrations of the rounds hitting the other side of the concrete railings. This went on for a while.

“I got on the radio and said, ‘Someone needs to tell these guys to stop firing or we’re going to f****** die here. F****** do something about it.”

Two New Zealand SAS troopers were injured in the raid – during which a foreign photographer took photos of both Victoria Cross winner Willie Apiata and Pennell - that were published in numerous countries.

Photos of the NZ SAS unit members - including Willie Apiata (seen in this file photo), Jamie Pennell and an injured Steve Askin - were snapped at the scene of the raid by a foreign photographer. Photo / Supplied

Pennell wrote in his memoir that before being mistakenly targeted by friendly fire, he witnessed a terrorist detonate his suicide vest in front of him as the group tried to clear the hotel’s roof.

“Boom! These guys thought they were tough, but when it came down to it they weren’t even prepared to fight,” he states in Serviceman J.

“They’d been through and killed a whole lot of innocent civilians, then got on top of the roof, and now that the playing field was suddenly evened out, they blew themselves up.”

One of Pennell’s colleagues was later lucky to escape with his life after the SAS unit was sent to neutralise the final Taliban terrorist who was holed up in a hotel room.

The trooper kicked the door in before a “massive explosion” occurred and “everyone disappeared in a thick cloud of dust”.

Pennell then heard someone say “Man down”.

“I could see the guy who’d kicked the door was on his arse, slumped up against the wall,” he wrote in Serviceman J.

“He was a big guy – about 100 kilos without his body armour on.”

Pennell pulled the injured soldier – who had “taken the full blast” of the suicide vest – away from the scene and urged him to “Stay awake! You’ve got to stay awake, man’.”

An Afghan man walks past the Intercontinental Hotel the day after the deadly attack by Taliban fighters. Photo / AFP

“If it had been anyone else, they would have been dead, but he was such a big bloke that he’d taken it like a champion. He had taken some ball bearings and had cuts to his face, arms and legs.”

One ball bearing had entered his shoulder and ricocheted around his chest. He was airlifted to Germany for surgery.

Pennell gave his dramatic first-hand account of the hotel siege – which made global headlines, including the involvement of the NZSAS – in a chapter called “The Big One”.

The attack was launched just six days after then-American president Barack Obama announced the pending withdrawal of 10,000 US soldiers from Afghanistan.

Hotel guests included foreign diplomats and business people visiting the Afghan capital to attend “various high-level events”.

The hotel was also hosting a wedding when the deadly attack was launched.

Former SAS member Jamie Pennell - pictured while working with the NZ Warriors league team - has revealed graphic new details about the Kabul hotel raid. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Pennell watched live footage as the attack unfolded before arriving on the scene with his team.

“I could see the terrorists up on the roof shooting down to the ground, where the ASNF [Afghan National Security Forces] were in a cordon position surrounding the building itself,” he wrote in Serviceman J.

“Believe it or not, this sort of gun battle wasn’t especially unusual or worrying. The worrying part was the fact that a lot of the rounds and rockets the terrorists were firing from the roof were landing in the surrounding neighbourhood, meaning the lives of innocent people and their families were in danger.”

By the time the New Zealanders had arrived to back up local forces, the Taliban attackers had laid IEDs – featuring grenades and tripwires – through the hotel.

“The comms we were getting through one of our operators said they were going to pull people out of the rooms, take them to the roof and cut their heads off, before throwing them off the roof of the building,” Pennell wrote.

“We had to move fast to prevent that from happening.”

To gain entry, Pennell and colleagues ran one-by-one 40m from a staging point in the hotel carpark, a move that exposed them to the heavily-armed terrorists on the roof.

“That was the only way in.”

Once inside, Pennell and a colleague – who he revealed was Steve Askin, who later died in a helicopter crash battling the 2017 Port Hills blaze – started making their way up internal stairwells.

In the process, they confronted armed terrorists, including some who threw grenades their way.

One exploded near Askin and “dropped him on his arse”.

Steve Askin pictured after the raid on the Kabul hotel. Photo / AFP

“He’d got shrapnel up his back, and in his legs and arms, and he was semi-concussed, but when I asked if he was all right he just said, ‘Yeah, yeah. Yep’,” Pennell wrote in Serviceman J.

Askin was later shot “through the head” around the time the unit was taking friendly fire.

“When he turned round, I could see that his head was pissing with blood, and his ear was hanging off a bit. I checked the wound. ‘It’s gone in and out, man,’ I said. ‘I think it’s gone through the side of your head’.”

In late 2014, it was announced two members of New Zealand’s SAS had received the New Zealand Gallantry Star, the second-highest honour for bravery in New Zealand.

That included Pennell – then dubbed Serviceman J – for putting himself in the line of enemy fire while providing medical support to a wounded comrade.

NZ SAS troopers disembark from a Chinook while on operations in Afghanistan. Photo / NZDF

Askin was also awarded the Star, while three other members of the elite unit were awarded the New Zealand Gallantry Medal for their actions.

Defence Minister at the time, Gerry Brownlee, said the way recipients operated was “of the highest order and in keeping with the finest tradition of New Zealand’s military record”.

In Serviceman J, Pennell said he believed Askin was deserving of a Victoria Cross for his bravery.

“He was relentless. He went face to face, stood his ground and shot a terrorist.

“Then he got blown up by a grenade and got shrapnel in the back, but when he was asked if he wanted to leave, he said no. He wanted to stay with it.

“Semi-concussed, he led the group up the northern and southern stairwells, did his job and got shot through the side of the head, but still wanted to stay on until I told him he’d had enough and had to go.”

Pennell completed five deployments in Afghanistan with the SAS.

He spent 18 years in the unit, with promotional material for Serviceman J – which is published by HarperCollins – describing the contents of his new book as a “gripping memoir”.

“From patrols across desert territories run by warlords to hostile fire and near-death combat, Serviceman J is a heart-stopping account of life inside one of the world’s most elite military forces.”

In the book – which was in stores and available online last Wednesday afternoon – Pennell also opens up about the uncompromising SAS selection process.

Ex-SAS trooper Jamie Pennell has just released a new book, Serviceman J, on his time in the SAS. Composite image / Supplied

In the introduction to Serviceman J, he also tried to dispel the way some people see members of the elite SAS unit.

“A lot of people seem to have a certain perception about the regiment,” he wrote.

“They think we’re cold-hearted, knuckle-dragging gorillas who just go out there and wipe people off the face of Earth. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Neil Reid is a Napier-based senior reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014 and has 30 years of newsroom experience.