New evidence that US Army deliberately targeted hospital in Kunduz

[Octafish]

Patient bed at Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical center, Kunduz, Afghanistan.

New evidence that US Army deliberately targeted hospital in Kunduz

By Joseph Kishore
wsws.org, 27 October 2015

It is now more than three weeks since the October 3 massacre by US military forces of medical personnel and patients at the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical center in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Aided by the media, the US military and the Obama administration are continuing their efforts to cover up and whitewash a war crime.

On Monday, the Associated Press published a report providing further confirmation that the facility was targeted and bombed by US military personnel with full knowledge that it was a functioning hospital. The attack lasted for an hour, destroying the building and killing 30 people, including at least 13 MSF staff members and 10 patients.

SNIP...

A report from “a senior Green Beret officer from 3rd Special Forces Group” on October 2 stated, “MSF report that they have personnel in the trauma center,” according to the AP, citing two sources who have seen the report.

The AP states that it was the Green Berets, the Special Forces division of the US Army, that called in the attack.

SNIP...

[font color="red"]The report follows a previous article citing a former intelligence official who said special operations analysts had mapped the entire area and drawn a circle around the hospital.[/font color]

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http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/27/kund-o27.html

Monday's AP report, which I did not see mentioned online or in-print or hear mentioned on-air, at all:

Troops who sought strike thought Taliban had hospital

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army Green Berets who requested the Oct. 3 airstrike on the Doctors without Borders trauma center in Afghanistan were aware it was a functioning hospital but believed it was under Taliban control, The Associated Press has learned.

The new information adds to a body of evidence that the internationally run medical facility site was familiar to the U.S. military, raising questions about whether the decision to attack it violated international law.

A day before an American AC-130 gunship attacked the hospital, a senior officer in the Green Beret unit wrote in a report that U.S. forces had discussed the hospital with the country director of the medical charity group, presumably in Kabul, according to two people who have seen the document.

SNIP...

Taken together, the revelations add to the growing possibility that U.S. forces destroyed what they knew was a functioning hospital, which would be a violation of the international rules of war. The Pentagon has said Americans would never have intentionally fired on a medical facility, and it's unclear why the Green Beret unit requested the strike — and how such an attack was approved by the chain of command — on coordinates widely known to have included a hospital.

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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a39810b7161d42fcb0abe36576d26730/troops-who-sought-strike-thought-taliban-had-hospital

What the hospital was like before it was targeted for closure.



Welfare for Warlords and Warmongers, courtesy of the US taxpayer.

Almost forgot: Where are the video and audio recordings from the gunship?