Hazara Nation

NZPA

Four New Zealand soldiers in Afghanistan were fortunate to escape without injury after a roadside device exploded next to their patrol vehicle today.

A four-vehicle New Zealand Defence Force patrol from the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) was travelling to a village near the border of the Baghlan province with a doctor to set up a mobile medical clinic.

An improvised explosive device (IED) went off beside one of the vehicles, damaging the front and smashing the windscreen, but no shrapnel reached the four occupants.While IEDs are commonly used in Afghanistan it was the first time NZDF personnel had encountered one.

NZDF spokesman Captain Zac Prendergast said the vehicles were not armoured and the occupants said they were lucky to get off with just cosmetic damage.

"The crater it made was 70cm across and 30cm deep. The dirt is quite hard-packed so there's fair whack of an explosion that's gone up.

"It obviously is a major threat to us and that's why there's drills and a high awareness of these."

Capt Prendergast said the coalition bomb squad that attended the incident said the patrol had done an excellent job of securing the scene and preserving evidence.

"Although this is the first IED that we have come across, it's good to know the training they have conducted has stood them in good stead."

He said IED was on a track which NZDF personnel travelled regularly and had likely been planted since they arrived in the area.

He could not say whether it indicated New Zealanders were now a target.

"It would probably be premature to say if this is a one-off. These guys were on their way to a village so it's a fairly typical route.

"The IEDs are planted, they don't sit there for years like bombs."

The NZDF PRT in Bamyan is made up of 107 personnel from the army, navy and air force. It has been involved in tasks such as building schools, police stations, a hospital ward and a number of village wells.

Security patrols in the past year have recovered and disposed of six tonnes of weapons, explosives and ammunition.

Six soldiers from the PRT were sent home this month to face a court martial for allegedly using hashish _ a potent form of cannabis.