The New Zealand Government has made the ''difficult'' decision to send Special Air Services troops back to Afghanistan, Prime Minister John Key says.
It will be the country's fourth deployment of SAS troops, and a commitment has been made to maintain about 70 personnel for up to 18 months, in three rotations.
''It's a difficult decision. There's no getting away from the fact that Afghanistan is a dangerous place,'' Mr Key said.
He said the deployment would be in the ''foreseeable future'' but kept with convention in refusing to say when, or where, the elite troops would go.
Parallel to the SAS deployment would be the gradual withdrawal of the NZ Defence Force's 140-strong provincial reconstruction team, which has been in Bamyan province since 2003.
The provincial reconstruction team would be withdrawn during the next three to five years and by the time it left, New Zealand would have had a presence in Afghanistan for 14 years.
Afghanistan remained an unstable place but Mr Key did not believe it was any more dangerous now than during previous SAS deployments.
''I don't think you can eliminate that there is a real risk to the people that we're deploying there, just as there actually is, I think, quite a significant risk to the 140 personnel that we have in Bamyan Province,'' he said.
''But I wouldn't call, on the advice that I have, the likelihood that this rotation could be more dangerous than previous rotations, not withstanding that Afghanistan is an increasingly dangerous place.''
The United States and Afghanistan had made repeated requests for the SAS to return to Afghanistan. Mr Key met a senior US representative at last week's Pacific Islands Forum and ''gave them an indication that it was likely this decision would be reached''.
''I think that they are supportive, obviously, and grateful that New Zealand is playing its part.''
Labour Leader Phil Goff said his party did not support the SAS deployment as it believed the way to win the conflict was by winning over the people ''and we were doing that most competently and effectively through the PRT in Bamyan''. ''We are not in the situation we were in earlier in the 21st century where this was a battle with al-Qaeda. This has fast moved in the direction of being a civil war.''
In Afghanistan, Taliban militants armed with guns and rockets attacked a provincial government and police headquarters near Kabul yesterday, 10 days before nationwide elections, an official said.
Insurgents targeted the compound in Pul-i-Alam, a provincial capital 50km south of Kabul, local government spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said.
''At 12.30pm the governor's building came under rocket attack from close range,'' he said by phone.
Gunfire could be heard in the background. ''The attackers are surrounded in two multi-storey buildings from where they are exchanging fire with security forces. I don't have information about casualties at this time,'' he added.
Rockets struck the governor's office, where there were no casualties, and the police headquarters, he said.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed that six suicide attackers had entered the building and 21 people had been killed. The Taliban routinely exaggerates its claims.
Afghanistan's electoral authorities said yesterday voting might have to be suspended in 10 districts unless the necessary security is in place ahead of polls on August 20.
Afghan security forces, backed by international troops, are engaged in operations in 35 districts, nine of which are under insurgent control just 10 days ahead of the election, an electoral official said.
Defence officials have said a massive drive is under way to oust insurgents from areas mainly in the country's south in a bid to allow Afghans to vote in the country's second-ever presidential election.
The insurgents have called on ordinary Afghans to boycott the upcoming elections and join what they call a ''holy war'' against Western troops. NPPA, AFP
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