The crew made a decision to open fire on a nearby large building, not knowing that it was a Doctors Without Borders hospital, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing the report before its official release.
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At least 30 civilians were killed in the 3 October attack, amid a campaign to retake Kunduz from Taliban forces.
The findings will be officially announced by US General John Campbell at North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters in Kabul at 7pm Wednesday (1430 GMT). No individuals will be named in this report, officials said. A declassified summary of the report is scheduled to be released Wednesday in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
Doctors Without Borders contacted the coalition during the attack to say their facility was being targeted. A USA military fact-finding investigation into the incident details the mistakes and reveals that the aircraft was supposed to be targeting a nearby compound suspected of housing Taliban gunmen, not the hospital, they said. “We are absoutely heartbroken”, said Shoffner, adding that the USA military in Afghanistan will ensure “it does not happen again”. They were described as dedicated to their work and their country.
Further, they said, equipment on board the aircraft that was supposed to notify the crew of the hospital’s location was malfunctioning.
“This mission critical information was not received by the AC-130 aircrew” or the Afghan commanders, the report said. By that time, the gunship had stopped firing.
The attack followed days of heavy fighting in the northern Afghanistan city, which had been overrun five days earlier by Taliban insurgents. While in the same general area as the NDS compound, the Doctors Without Borders compound was several hundred yards away from the NDS compound.
In the days following the attack, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he would hold personnel accountable if an investigation showed USA culpability in the airstrike at the hospital.
The attack killed 22 people, including 12 MSF staff.
Zulmay Khalilzad, the former USA ambassador to Afghanistan, on Tuesday told Afghan media the security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated since a year ago and that “the country would fail to grapple with these challenges” if support from the United States waned.
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Almost an hour into the attack, MSF said an American official in Afghanistan responded, “I’ll do my best, praying for you all”.
