Afghan businessman claims New Zealand troops killed security guards

Dec 29, 2010, 21:45 GMT

Wellington - The owner of a Kabul factory where two security guards were shot dead has blamed New Zealand special forces and called for them to be punished, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The guards died in a night raid on the premises of Tiger International Armour on Christmas Eve by soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Officials said the raid was in response to a 'credible threat' to attack the United States embassy in Kabul.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) confirmed that members of its Special Air Service unit were in the ISAF party and said it was fired on by the security guards and forced to fire back in self defence, killing two of them.

The owner of the business, Nawid Shah Sakhizada, denied this in an interview with Wellington's Dominion Post.

'When my guards come up into our room and said that this is ISAF firing, what shall we do. We just say that, OK, you are not allowed to fire, to shoot them. From the beginning our security guards did not fire on them,' he told paper.

He told the newspaper that the guards hid in an office with other workers and tried to assure the soldiers they were not Taliban. But the troops opened fire, he said.

He denied a claim in a NZDF statement that a 'large number' of small arms were found on site and said searches by the troops found nothing.

After a high-ranking Afghan National Security Forces commander arrived and vouched for the guards, the ISAF officers relented and apologised.

'But I say apology is not enough,' Sakhizada said. 'I told them, 'You did not kill two cows. You killed two human beings'.' He said he saw the patches on the soldiers' uniforms and spoke to their officers, and learned they were from New Zealand.

'We want to have them punished and let all people of Afghanistan know that these were innocent people who are dead and innocent people who were injured and the company was only businessmen and they were doing only their business.'

The NZDF statement said ISAF had confirmed that proper protocols and rules of engagement were correctly followed.

'Afghan authorities and ISAF are conducting an investigation. The NZDF will be closely following its progress,' the NZDF said.

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