Kabul: The top US commander in Afghanistan, General John F. Campbell, has said several service members have been suspended from duty after an internal military investigation of an air strike on a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz last month.

Calling the air strike a “tragic mistake,” General Campbell made a brief statement about the investigation and suspensions but refused to answer questions. He said the hospital air strike had been caused by a combination of human error, mechanical failures and fatigue of Special Operations troops who had been fighting for five straight days before the mistaken strike on October 3, which killed 30 patients and staff members at the Medecins Sans Frontieres facility.

Following up, Brigadier General Wilson Shoffner, the spokesman for the US command in Afghanistan, said that the AC-130 gunship that fired on the hospital had broken rules of engagement to do so. He would not say how many soldiers had been suspended and whether they would face disciplinary or criminal charges.

The military’s internal investigation report was not made available to the press. But US officials who have seen it said that the crew of the AC-130 had intended to strike a different building that had been identified as a Taliban command centre. Instead, relying on communication with US and Afghan forces within Kunduz, the crew incorrectly identified the hospital as its target, and then made repeated attack passes over the complex.

A senior United States military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that among those disciplined was the Army Special Forces commander on the ground in Kunduz during the fighting. The official would not identify the commander by name, but said the officer, a captain, was relieved of his command in Afghanistan on Wednesday morning.

New York Times