New Zealand peacekeeping soldiers have been involved in a night time gun battle with a group of insurgents in an isolated area of Afghanistan.
Although no one on the New Zealand or Afghan National Police (ANP) side has been killed or hurt, Defence Force Air Vice Marshall Peter Stockwell said they do not know if any of the insurgents had been hit.
New Zealanders were only now leaving the ANP compound in Do Abe to check where the gunfire came from.
"If they get up there I would be surprised if they find anything... there may be trails," he said.
The New Zealanders would not try to track them in the rugged countryside.
"We would need to be very cautious about that approach."
It's the first hostile exchange for the 140-member Army, Navy and Air Force New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). The secretive Special Air Services (SAS) have been in fights in the country but are not currently deployed there.
The PRT are posted to Kiwi Base in the normally quiet Bamiyan Province.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/2531579/NZ-troops-fired-on-in-Afghanistan