US Analysts Were Gathering Intel on Afghan Hospital for Suspected Taliban Activity

The charity, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said they were informed the tank contained a delegation from a “U.S./NATO/Afghan team” investigating the October. 3 bombing.

MSF President Meinie Nicolai told the news agency that the new details suggest that the hospital was intentionally targeted.

While U.S. President Barack Obama formally apologized to MSF for the deadly attack, the USA government has yet to consent to an impartial, global investigation.

Pakistan has rejected U.S. claims that a Pakistani operative was in Kunduz hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) that was hit by a United States airstrike.

The airstrikes came as USA military advisers were helping Afghan forces take back the northern city of Kunduz from the Taliban, which had earlier seized the city in the group’s first major victory since being ousted from power by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

MSF also cried foul on Thursday after members of the U.S.-Afghan-NATO investigative team entered the hospital site in a tank, saying in a statement that the investigators’ “unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear”. Further, none of the victims killed by the air strikes have been publicly identified as Pakistani, and MSF says that none of its staff at the hospital were Pakistani.

However, the Russian defense ministry said an “information-sharing” mechanism had been established through a hotline between the Russian command center in Syria and a command post of the Israeli air force.

Ken Dilanian, an Intelligence Writer for The Associated Press said, “We know that lower-level intelligence analysts were well aware across the military that this was a hospital”. Gen. John Campbell, the USA commander for Afghanistan, said it was a mistake, while other analysts have said said it was justified. Jason Cone, the organization’s USA executive director, told CNN, “It’s one of the most clear-cut cases that we can think of where the laws of war were violated, where a protected medical structure should have been protected, was instead it was bombed, and for us, it’s really one of the gravest incidents we’ve faced in our organization in 44 years and that’s why we’ve asked for this independent inquiry by the humanitarian fact-finding commission”. Five separate strikes by AC-130 gunships on the hospital were carried out over an hour. In that scenario, it’s not readily apparent why his unit couldn’t have retreated. Could the intelligence have somehow trickled over to whoever ordered the strike?

“I want to reiterate that non-interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs is a key pillar of our Afghan policy”, the FO spokesman said. The Daily Beast reported that during classified briefings on Capitol Hill last week, the military withheld both the audio and video from inside the cockpit, “even when a lawmaker directly requested to listen to the audio”.