U.S. gunship hit Afghan hospital, general confirms

Afghans made call, he says

Gen. John Campbell, the top commander of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan, said Monday that Afghan forces who reported being under Taliban fire requested the U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people at a medical clinic in northern Afghanistan.
Gen. John Campbell, the top commander of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan, said Monday that Afghan forces who reported being under Taliban fire requested the U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people at a medical clinic in northern Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The top U.S. general in Afghanistan confirmed that an American gunship carried out the aerial assault that destroyed a hospital during fighting in the northern city of Kunduz, killing 22 people, including 12 aid workers, and injuring dozens more patients and staff members.

It was the first direct U.S. acknowledgment of responsibility for what Gen. John Campbell called "a very serious and tragic" event. Afghan security forces under attack made the request for an airstrike to a U.S. special operations team providing training and assistance, Campbell said at a Pentagon briefing Monday, disputing earlier reports that American forces initiated the call for help.

"We have now learned that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces," Campbell said. "An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat, and several civilians were accidentally struck. This is different from the initial reports, which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf."

"The United States military takes extraordinary steps to avoid harm to civilians," said Campbell, who commands U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, but the Taliban chose to "fight from within a heavily urbanized area," purposely "placing civilians in harm's way."

Doctors Without Borders, the international aid group that ran the hospital, responded in a statement that the U.S. "description of the attack keeps changing -- from collateral damage to a tragic incident, to now attempting to pass responsibility to the Afghanistan government."

"The reality is that the U.S. dropped those bombs," Christopher Stokes, the group's general director, said in the statement.

"The U.S. military remains responsible for the targets it hits, even though it is part of a coalition," Stokes said. "There can be no justification for this horrible attack."

Doctors Without Borders has demanded an investigation by an independent international body "under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed."

At the Pentagon briefing, Campbell said he expects to receive a preliminary report on the strike later this week. He declined to discuss whether the hospital's GPS coordinates were provided to U.S. forces in advance, as Doctors Without Borders has asserted.

Campbell said the strike was conducted by an AC-130 gunship, which works in tandem with U.S. special forces. The gunship is designed to fly slowly in a racetrack pattern over a target and pummel it with side-firing weapons including 40mm and 105mm cannons and a 25mm Gatling gun.

The U.S. military is doing its own standard investigation under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Campbell's revised account does not clarify whether the clinic was targeted in error or whether U.S. military personnel followed procedure. They are required to verify that the target of the requested airstrike is valid before firing. Asked about those procedures, Campbell said he would not discuss the rules of engagement under which U.S. forces operate.

"If errors were committed we will acknowledge them," Campbell said. "We'll hold those responsible accountable and we'll take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated."

Asked whether he could confirm in general terms whether hospitals and other civilian facilities like mosques and schools are off-limits to U.S. airstrikes, Campbell replied, "Very broadly, we do not strike those kind of targets, absolutely."

He declined to say who authorized the strike.

President Barack Obama offered condolences to the victims of the "tragic incident" in a statement Saturday. With a Defense Department inquiry under way, we "await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive judgment as to the circumstances of this tragedy," he said.

Doctors Without Borders has said the attack continued for more than 30 minutes after it alerted military officials in Kabul and Washington by phone that it was under fire.

It disputed that there was fighting nearby at the time, and reiterated the claim in an emailed statement Monday.

The group was treating war wounded in the hospital, including Taliban fighters. There were more than 180 people there at the time, including 105 patients and caretakers, according to the group's website.

Staff, patients moved

The hospital isn't functional now and patients were transferred to other medical facilities, Tim Shenk, a spokesman for Doctors Without Borders, said in an email. The group withdrew its personnel from Kunduz on Sunday. It will continue its work at four other locations in Afghanistan, as health needs in the country are "extremely high," he said, adding that some staff remained behind in Kunduz to help out in the city's two remaining hospitals.

The area has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said, adding that both U.S. and Taliban forces were operating nearby. The U.S. military has supported the Afghan army by ground and air in Kunduz since the Taliban battled its way into the strategically located northern city a week ago.

Residents of Kunduz began venturing out of their homes as calm returned to the streets Monday, officials and residents said, in the first signs of normalcy after the blitz that captured and held Kunduz for three days.

Clashes were still underway between government forces and the Taliban on the city's outskirts on Monday, according to Khosh Mohammad, a member of the Kunduz provincial council.

Gen. Dawlat Waziri, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said the national flag was raised over the provincial governor's office and the acting governor, Hamidullah Danishi -- appointed last week to replace Mohammad Omer Safi, who was abroad at the time of the attack -- had returned to work.

In the center of Kunduz, shops opened and people were seen walking the streets Monday, and government troops have largely cleared the militants from the city, said Sarwar Hussaini, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Former Gov. Safi, in an interview with The Associated Press, said he had warned the government that the city was vulnerable to Taliban attack.

Safi was sacked Wednesday, two days after the Taliban overran the city with a surprise attack from multiple fronts, and three days after he left for Turkey on a four-day break approved by the president, he said.

He said Taliban militants had been in control of 60 percent of the province, also called Kunduz, for at least three months and were within 2 miles of the city.

"I made the central authorities aware of it," he said. He said he wrote numerous proposals for securing the city against a Taliban onslaught, for the National Security Council and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance, a powerful body in charge of appointing provincial governors and supporting governance at local and provincial levels.

"I sent a letter a month ago suggesting there was a risk to Kunduz city, to the [directorate] explaining that we need a strong security belt for the city. I designed the security belt and requested 15 security bases," he said. "The total cost for this was 18 million afghanis, which is around $250,000. I sent numerous emails, follow-up calls. But the government could not find this money to make this belt."

The directorate's communications manager, Muera Yousofzada, said that any documents on the Kunduz security situation had "been passed along to the relevant authorities." She gave no further details.

The president's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One directorate official confirmed, however, that Safi's reports are being reviewed. Speaking on condition that he not be identified as he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, the official said a security plan was now being formulated for Kunduz "based on Safi's proposals."

Campbell to testify

Campbell, whose headquarters is in Kabul, was in Washington on Monday because he is testifying before two congressional committees this week. He noted that the Kunduz airstrike happened one day after a U.S. C-130 cargo plane crashed at an air base in northern Afghanistan, killing all six U.S. crew members as well as five civilian passengers.

Campbell said the bodies of the six C-130 crew members were scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, on Monday.

Campbell is expected to testify about his recommendations on the future of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan. A key question is whether Obama will alter his plan for reducing the U.S. troop presence from its current level of about 9,800 to leave only an embassy-based security cooperation office after 2016.

Carter said Monday that the U.S. intends to continue a military presence after 2016, adding, "it's not a matter of whether but how many and how."

Speaking during a news conference in Madrid, Carter said, "The president and all the rest of us continue to respond to and adjust to circumstances there and I expect that will continue."

He said the Pentagon is providing options to the White House and Obama will be making decisions about future force levels later this fall.

Information for this article was contributed by Eltaf Najafizada and Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg News and by Robert Burns, Lolita C. Baldor, Lynne O'Donnell, Rahim Faiez and Humayoon Babur of The Associated Press.

A Section on 10/06/2015

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