American special operations analysts knew they were bombing a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, the Associated Press reports. They concluded that the Pakistani, thought to have been working for his country’s Inter-Service Intelligence directorate, had been killed.
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The Pentagon is now conducting an investigation into the incident.
The revelations from the AP came the same day as Obama announced that the USA will keep 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, likely through at least the end of his presidency.
New media revelations have confirmed that the U.S. airstrikes against a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical center in Kunduz, Afghanistan were premeditated and deliberate, constituting a flagrant war crime.
The White House made clear yesterday that they oppose any independent investigation of the recent United States attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, and the Pentagon seems to be doubling down, ensuring that there’s not much evidence left for any independent investigators when they get through.
“Since this attack, airborne attacks have killed many civilians in Yemen and other bombs have hit hospitals in Syria”, said Mike Noyes, ActionAid head of humanitarian response, on behalf of the Start Network. Typically, pilots flying air support missions have maps showing protected sites such as hospitals and mosques. Doctors Without Borders disputes that the hospital was being used by the Taliban for military purposes.
“Respect for the laws of war is what protects our staff and patients in conflict zones throughout the world”, said Jason Cone, executive director of the agency’s USA operation. He requested the gunship strike. The hospital is within a compound surrounded by a 12-foot wall that could have offered cover from fire emanating from one building.
Both governments had previously been informed of the hospital’s coordinates to prevent any accidental bombings of the hospital buildings, according towww.afghanistan-analysts.org. Could the intelligence have somehow trickled over to whoever ordered the strike?
It said Scotland and the US were asking Libyan authorities to help Scottish detectives and Federal Bureau of Investigation officers interview the suspects. “Next week I will host prime minister (Nawaz) Sharif of Pakistan and I will continue to urge all parties in the region to press the Taliban to return to the peace talks” and do their part in pursuit of peace that the Afghan people deserve. She’s anxious about a warning the Taliban has issued, declaring that Sarwari “would be hanged in the main circle in Kunduz city”, if she sets foot there again. The recordings have not been released publicly or even to the members of Congress who received a classified briefing on the incident.
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“This is what we wanted”, she says.
