Civilian deaths disputed
AUCKLAND: Another shadow has been cast over the accuracy of Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson’s book Hit & Run.
It concerns a photograph where the authors say a recently graduated teacher, whom they name as simply Islamuddin, was shot.
He died from bullet wounds rather than shrapnel from helicopter weapons that allegedly killed most of the six civilians.
The photo shows spent weapon cartridges, and suggests they were found at the scene and infers that was where NZ Special Air Service (SAS) snipers were located during the raid.
But a weapons specialist, asked to identify the cartridges, said they could not possibly have been fired by SAS troops as they were issued with weapons that fire bullets half the size of the cartridge cases.
‘‘I would say they’re from a largecalibre cannon, from an Apache helicopter,’’ Richard Munt, of Serious Shooters, in Auckland, said.
‘‘They’re not from a shoulderfired firearm. They would be almost impossible to fire without injury to the shooter.
‘‘They are large, they’re an anti tank weapon.’’
Mr Munt’s claims may give weight to the argument of Government support partner Peter Dunne at his colleagues’ reluctance to call an inquiry into whether civilians were killed.
‘‘What if the Defence Force’s rebuttal is correct as far as it goes, and the SAS was not involved in the attacks, and the video footage also confirms that, but shows that another force, the Americans, were more explicitly involved than has been indicated to date.
‘‘Does New Zealand want to be the source of exposing that right now, given the unpredictability of the current administration?’’ Mr Dunne asked yesterday.
Stephenson did not return calls for comment last night.
Earlier this week, both the NZDF and the authors of Hit & Run were told by villagers said to have been on the receiving end of the deadly attack that they got the location and names of the villages wrong.
Hit & Run claimed the SAS carried out a raid in August 2010 on the villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad, which killed six civilians and injured 15.
The NZDF said the SAS had never operated in those villages but instead carried out a raid on nearby Tirgiran Village 2km away.
Earlier yesterday, the NZDF released more maps to counter claims SAS forces carried out raids on Naik and Khak Khuday Dad.
Detailed maps in the book mark the exact homes the authors say were destroyed by NZDF forces in Operation Burnham and those of the six civilians they claim were killed.
Since the book’s launch last week, the authors conceded they might have got the location of the villages within the Tirgiran valley wrong after NZDF chief Lieutenantgeneral Tim Keating said on Monday the SAS never visited those villages.
The maps released by the NZDF yesterday pinpointed the homes they say were raided, and accidentally set alight. The maps also set out different helicopter landing sites.
‘‘None of the houses identified in [Hit & Run] were destroyed by NZDF or coalition members,’’ the maps note.
‘‘Only positively identified armed insurgents were targeted. No personnel were targeted at any of the locations identified [in Hit & Run].’’