The chief of New Zealand's military broke his silence last night over allegations Kiwi SAS troops killed civilians in a botched raid in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant General Tim Keating, chief of the New Zealand Defence Force, rubbished the serious claims made by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson in their book Hit & Run, saying it had "major inaccuracies."
The book, released last week, argues soldiers killed six innocent villagers, including a three-year-old girl, and injured 15 others in Baghlan Province in 2010 during a revenge raid after the death of Timothy O'Donnell.
Hager and Stephenson also allege the NZDF sought to cover up the mission, which has been described by Wayne Mapp, defence minister at the time, as "disastrous" and "a fiasco".
In a statement released yesterday evening, Keating disagreed with the central premise of the book, stating that New Zealand soldiers had never operated in the area of Khak Khuday Dad or Naik - the villages said to be at the centre of the raid.
"The authors appear to have confused interviews, stories and anecdotes from locals with an operation conducted more than two kilometres to the south, known as Operation Burnham," Keating said.
That operation, Keating claims, saw a helicopter gun sight malfunction, causing several "rounds" to miss their intended targets and instead destroy two buildings.
An investigation conducted by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said civilian casualties could have resulted but no evidence was produced, Keating related.
"The NZDF reiterates its position that New Zealand personnel acted appropriately during this operation and were not involved in the deaths of civilians or any untoward destruction of property."
Nicky Hager, speaking to Newstalk ZB late last night, said the NZDF was attempting to "muddy the waters".
Hager retorted that Keating's claims are "astonishing", and don't invalidate claims civilians were killed.
"We're talking about the middle of the Hindu Kush mountains, where there are no roads, on a river valley which took several hours to walk [to] from the nearest road...and they're saying it's slightly further upstream," Hager said.
The government has so far refused to launch an inquiry into the allegations in Hit & Run, which could amount to war crimes. The book's authors, opposition parties, and human rights lawyers have all said an inquiry is necessary to establish the truth of what happened.
Prime Minister Bill English spoke to Lt. Gen. Keating and Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee last night on whether an inquiry should go ahead.
"We're taking a considered approach to it," English said earlier this week. "We're not going to be rushed in by a public relations blitz."
A vigil will be held at parliament this morning backing calls for an inquiry. Organisers, who are associated with the Catholic Worker movement, believe an official look into the allegations is an honourable thing to do.
"We feel moved to respond to the material in the book with prayers, not just praying in the comfort of our own front rooms, but going out on the street, going to parliament," spokesperson Adi Leason said.
"This is far too big and far too tragic to be left to some internal process that's done in-house."
The prayer meeting will begin at 7.30am at parliament's grounds.
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