U.S. military disciplines about 16 in bombing of civilian hospital in Kunduz
Pentagon report into the bombing of MSF-run hospital expected Friday
About 16 U.S. military personnel, including a two-star general, have been disciplined for mistakes that led to the bombing of a civilian hospital in Afghanistan last year that killed 42 people, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
According to officials, no criminal charges were filed and the service members received administrative punishments in connection with the U.S. airstrike in the northern city of Kunduz.
A number of those punished are U.S. special operations forces.
While none was sent to court martial, in many cases, a non-judicial punishment, such as a letter of reprimand or suspension, can effectively end a military career.
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The Pentagon is expected to release the full report on the investigation on Friday.
The hospital in Kunduz, run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, was attacked by a U.S. air force special operations AC-130 gunship — one of the most lethal aircraft in the U.S. arsenal. Doctors Without Borders has called the attack "relentless and brutal."
The crew of the AC-130, which is armed with side-firing cannons and guns, had been dispatched to hit a Taliban command centre in a different building, just over 400 metres away from the hospital. Hampered by problems with their targeting sensors, the crew relied on a physical description that led them to begin firing at the hospital even though they saw no hostile activity there.
Officials have said the accident was caused by human error, and that many chances to avert the incident were missed.
A separate U.S. report on the incident, obtained last fall by The Associated Press, said the AC-130 aircraft fired 211 shells at the hospital compound over 29 minutes before commanders realized the mistake and ordered a halt.
Doctors Without Borders officials contacted coalition military personnel during the attack to say the hospital was "being bombed from the air," and the word finally was relayed to the AC-130 crew, the report said.
The attack came as U.S. military advisers were helping Afghan forces retake Kunduz, which had fallen to the Taliban on Sept. 28. It was the first major city to fall since the Taliban were expelled from Kabul in 2001.
Afghan officials claimed the hospital had been overrun by the Taliban, but no evidence of that has surfaced. The hospital was destroyed and Doctors Without Borders — also known by its French acronym, MSF — ceased operations in Kunduz.