A small group has gathered at Parliament in an early morning vigil calling for an inquiry into New Zealand SAS actions in Afghanistan.
The group laid out a banner on Parliament's forecourt that read "Investigate Tirgiran Valley Massacre", lit candles and displayed photos of Afghan civilians alleged killed during a New Zealand-led raid.
Adrian Leason, who came to national prominence as one of the Waihopai spy base protesters, said the vigil was about prayer and remembering "the victims of this tragedy".
"It's just one natural response in the face of something so sad - to gather and to pray and remember. Even though it was so long ago.
"Today Cabinet is meeting and they are going to need all the heavenly help they can get as they make difficult decisions as to what happens now."
Prime Minister Bill English this morning said there won't be an inquiry into allegations New Zealand's SAS was possibly involved in war crimes in Afghanistan.
English told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning that an inquiry into any of the claims was "unlikely", now the NZ Defence Force had told him its troops never operated in the two villages identified in the book Hit & Run.
"But as we found with this issue it is better to work through it pretty carefully. I wouldn't rule it out just yet.
"But I think we can rule out an inquiry into the alleged war crimes because whatever those stories were, if they happened at all they happened in different villages, not in the village where the New Zealand operation occurred."
Journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson claimed in Hit & Run that six civilians were killed and 15 were injured in the raid, which was carried out with US air support and alongside Afghan troops New Zealand had been mentoring.
The book said the raid was a revenge attack on insurgents who were believed to be responsible for the death of soldier Timothy O'Donnell, the first New Zealand combat death in Afghanistan.
Hager and Stephenson stand by the claims in the book.