Multiple Members of the US Military Suspended Over Airstrike on Doctors

Christopher Stokes, second left, the general director of Doctors Without Borders and his colleague stand as an Afghan National Army vehicle guards at the gate of its hospital after U.S. troops left the area in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

The U.S. airstrike that killed 31 civilians at a hospital in Afghanistan last month resulted from preventable errors by soldiers and airmen who violated rules of engagement and have been removed from duty while awaiting further investigation, military officials said Wednesday.

The investigation found in that the “reason for this tragedy was … avoidable human error, compounded by process & equipment failures”, Campbell stated. “The frightening catalog of errors outlined today illustrates gross negligence on the part of US forces and violations of the rules of war”.

The group stands by its call for a completely independent investigation.

KUNDUZ- A United States aircraft attacked a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic in the Afghan city of Kunduz because of “human error”, a United States military inquiry said.

The aid group was sharply critical of Campbell’s remarks.

The general said during Wednesday’s press conference that individuals involved in the attack had been suspended pending “standard military justice”, but refused to offer details on who was responsible.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the charity that run the hospital, also demanded an worldwide investigation. “They believed they were striking a building located several hundred meters away taken over by insurgents”, he said, adding that “Those who called and conducted the strike did not take procedures to verify this was a legitimate target”.

But on the way to the position electronic systems malfunctioned aboard the A-130 bomber eliminating “the ability of aircraft to transmit video send and receive e-mail or send and receive electronic messages” said Campbell. But “the crew remained fixated” on the hospital and did not rely on the grid location system, Campbell said. This degraded the accuracy of certain targeting systems which later contributed to the misidentification of the [Doctors Without Borders] trauma center, ” the general said.

Immediately before firing, the aircrew relayed the coordinates of the hospital, to its headquarters, where officers knew it to be on the no-strike list, Campbell said.

According to the military’s investigation, the special operations gunship had sought to attack a building suspected of being used as a base by Taliban insurgents, but the location the USA crew had been given turned out to be an open field.

MSF, known as Doctors Without Borders in English, has in the past publicly cast doubt on the idea that the strike could have been a mistake.

A U.S. fighter plane fired 211 shells at the MSF compound over a 25-minute period.