The SAS "mentoring" role in Kabul amounts to a "substantial combat role", the Government has admitted.

Najibullah Lafraie, a former Afghanistan foreign minister, joins us from 2.30pm today for a live chat om the path to peace.

Former heads of the Defence Force have rejected claims made by Nicky Hager in his latest book that a NZ base in Afghanistan is home to a CIA unit, while new Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae described as "abhorrent", the suggestion that

Prime Minister John Key is not ruling out future SAS deployments to Afghanistan after the death of a Kiwi soldier.

The family of Corporal Doug "Dougie" Grant, named this morning as the New Zealand SAS soldier killed in a Taleban attack in Afghanistan on Friday, had achieved his boyhood dream to serve with the elite unit.

A review of the operation in which an SAS soldier died on Friday night in Afghanistan will be held to see what can be learned, the Defence Force says.

The SAS trooper killed in Afghanistan is a married father of two, the Herald on Sunday has been told.

Prime Minister John Key says he accepts full responsibility for the deployment of New Zealand troops in Afghanistan but he sees no need to end their service early after the death of an SAS soldier yesterday.

A New Zealand SAS soldier died on the way to hospital in Afghanistan last night after being shot in the chest after a group of suicide attackers stormed a British compound in the capital, Kabul.