US Bombing Of Kunduz Hospital Looks More Like a War Crime Each Day by Willy B

Note: This is my first post on this blog. Col. Lang recently very kindly invited me to be a guest author and while I don't know that I'm up to the standards of this august group, I hope to learn much from your comments and encouragement.

            

Information is starting to appear that suggests that elements of the US military knew that the Doctors Without Borders (also known as MSF, its French initials) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was, indeed, a hospital, and therefore not a legitimate target and despite that, the US bombed it anyway. The Pentagon is sitting on some of the most crucial information, however, citing the allegedly ongoing investigation, so many questions remain to be answered, but enough information on what happened has leaked out into the public domain that suggests that a criminal act may have been committed, an act that killed 22 people, including 12 hospital staffers, when the hospital was bombed by a US aircraft on Oct. 3.

 

 - The Attack Was Anything But Random -

 

          On October 13, Vice News, relying on knowledgeable sources and a US Air Force doctrine document on targeting, reported  that the attack was anything but random. "The airstrike on the hospital was not just a spur-of-the-moment decision; rather, it was the end product of detailed planning and coordination," Vice News reports, which then provides a description of the targeting process based on the doctrine document to include the provision of a "no strike" list, which lists all of those objects which are exempt from attack, including hospitals. The targeting process always includes a determination of the legality of the target and requires commanders to take steps to "avoid excessive incidental civilian casualties and damage to civilian property." It is fairly likely, Vice concludes, that a US military lawyer signed off on the Kunduz attack. Gen. Campbell, the US commander in Afghanistan, has testified that there was a ground controller in the vicinity and that he was talking to the AC-130 crew, which, itself, would have been fully briefed on the situation, before even leaving the ground, including the presence of any such prohibited targets.

 

- US Intelligence Knew It Was a Hospital -

 

          An Associated Press story  that first appeared on Oct. 15 reported that special operations intelligence analysts, in the days before the hospital was bombed, were investigating an alleged Pakistani intelligence services operative who may have been working for the Taliban from inside the hospital. The special operations analysts, AP reports, had assembled a dossier that included maps with the hospital circled, along with indications that intelligence agencies were tracking the location of the Pakistani operative and activity reports based on overhead surveillance, according to a former intelligence official who is familiar with some of the documents describing the site. The intelligence suggested the hospital was being used as a Taliban command and control center and may have housed heavy weapons. No evidence has surfaced indicating that there was, indeed, a Pakistani agent inside the hospital--MSF denies that there were any Pakistanis on its staff–-but whether it is true or not, US military intelligence clearly knew that the facility was a hospital. It is not clear, however, whether or not the AC-130 gunship crew that carried out the attack that night was informed of the intelligence on the hospital.        

 

- Repeated Attacks -

 

          MSF officials have said that hospital was hit five times over the period of an hour, and that they could hear the attacking aircraft circling overhead. Aircrews, AP goes on to report, would typically fly with maps showing the protected sites, and if that protection is violated by the adversary, there are procedures in place to minimize civilian casualties, procedures that were apparently not applied.  What the new details suggest "is that the hospital was intentionally targeted, killing at least 22 patients and MSF staff," said  Meinie Nicolai, president of MSF's operational directorate. "This would amount to a premeditated massacre. …" MSF also insists that there was no firefight in the area and that it was a calm night, contrary to what Gen. John Campbell, the US commander in Afghanistan, testifed to the US Congress a week-and-a-half ago. MSF admits treating Taliban fighters at the hospital but they say that no weapons were allowed in and there were no weapons in the hospital that night.

          Even if it was an accident, Obama's apology is not nearly enough for MSF. "We are still in the dark about why a well-known hospital full of patients and medical staff was repeatedly bombarded for more than an hour," said Dr. Joanne Liu, president of MSF told the New York Times. "We need to understand what happened and why." Françoise Bouchet-Saulnier, an MSF legal director, added that "Even behind a mistake, there is still a potential violation of humanitarian law that may amount to a war crime."

 

- US Acting To Destroy Evidence? -

 

          On Oct. 15, an armored vehicle carrying members of the US-Afghan-NATO investigation team forced its way into the hospital compound. The hospital is no longer being used by MSF but an MSF team was visiting the facility at the time. "The unannounced and forced entry damaged the gate to the property, potentially destroyed evidence, and caused stress and fear for the MSF team that had arrived earlier in the day to visit the hospital," MSF said in an Oct. 16 statement . "This occurred despite an agreement made between MSF and the joint investigation team that MSF would be provided advance notice before each step of the process involving the MSF's personnel and assets." The Huffington Post reported  that the incursion suggests that the government probes may be heavy-handed and ineffective, trampling on the aid organization's rights and, perhaps, on clues that remain at the site of the bombing. "The organization's push for an independent inquiry may gain traction now that it appears that the government investigations involve sending over armored vehicles unannounced."

         

- It Looks Like a War Crime -

 

          MSF continues to maintain its original charge that the US military bombed its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan deliberately. At the same time, anonymous Pentagon sources, told CNN that MSF did, indeed, doing everything right to alert the US that it was operating in Kunduz, which had been taken over by the Taliban some days before the Cotober 3 bombing incident.

          Christopher Stokes, general director of MSF, told the Associated Press in an interview in the ruined remains of the facility that the precise nature of the attack casts doubts on the US assertions that it was a mistake. "The hospital was repeatedly hit both at the front and the rear and extensively destroyed and damaged, even though we have provided all the coordinates and all the right information to all the parties in the conflict," he said. "The extensive, quite precise destruction of this hospital ... doesn't indicate a mistake. The hospital was repeatedly hit." The attack went on for an hour despite repeated calls to the US military telling them they were hitting a hospital. Stokes told the AP that that MSF wanted a "clear explanation because all indications point to a grave breach of international humanitarian law, and therefore a war crime."

          Anonymous  sources within the Pentagon, meanwhile, confirmed to CNN, that MSF did, indeed, do everything right. The US government was well aware that the facility was a hospital but, according to CNN's sources, that information did not get to the correct military personnel. One of the sources said that MSF "did everything right in informing us." The location of the hospital "was in the military database" of restricted sites such as hospitals, mosques and schools that U.S. pilots are not allowed to strike even if insurgents are present. There had been reports of Taliban at the hospital, but that does not override the rules of engagement or the fact that as a hospital, it was a protected target, CNN's sources said.

 

- Survivors Contradict Official Accounts of Kunduz Hospital Attack -

 

          Afghanistan's acting defense minister, Masoom Stanekzai, went so far as to defend the attack. In comments to the Associated Press, yesterday, he claimed that there were Taliban and Pakistani operatives in the hospital and that a Taliban flag had been painted onto the walls of the compound. "That was a place they wanted to use as a safe place because everybody knows that our security forces and international security forces were very careful not to do anything with a hospital," he said. Stanekzai further claimed that the Afghan government had evidence that Taliban and Pakistani ISIS operatives were communicating from the hospital to command centers in Pakistan, as if this justifies the attack.

          Eyewitnesses and survivors interviewed, last week, by Andrew Quilty of {Foreign Policy} magazine completely contradicted Stanekzai's claims, however. A mullah who was the brother of a patient who was killed in the attack and two others, all of whom asked not to be named, all said that the MSF staff did not allow any weapons into the facility, a ban that the Taliban actually respected, and that the fighting in the city that night never got closer to the hospital than about 200 yards.

          Whether or not Taliban forces were in the hospital, attacking such a facility is totally contrary to internationally accepted war practices, and in fact constitutes a war crime, as MSF and others have rightly stated.

 

 

Comments

[FB Ali]

My take on this tragic incident is:

- There is no doubt that the hospital was deliberately targetted by the AC-130. The attack went on for about an hour, probably because the plane was circling the target and using its 105 mm cannon on each pass. This wasn't "collateral damage"; the intention was to completely destroy the facility.

- Most likely, the strike was called by Afghan SF on the scene, through the US SF group supporting them.

- The hospital was certainly on the US 'excluded targets' list; it is not clear if the AC-130 crew had this list. The various procedures with respect to such targets are just formal ones on paper, and are not followed in the field. Hence the lethal "errors" that sometimes come to light; there must be many more that don't.

- The hospital was targetted by Afghan SF because they believed (as Stanekzai claims) that it was used by the Taliban and the Pakistani ISI as a command and control centre (not as a fire base). This may or may not be a fact. As Willy B says, even if this was happening, it does not justify the attack in international law (though it may do so in Afghan and US eyes). A secondary motive may have been the one PB suggests: to destroy the only hospital in that (Taliban dominated) area, and force MSF out of the country.

[optimax]

The other day I heard on the radio that an AC-130 crew called the command center questioning the attack, "Isn't this illegal?" He was told to proceed with the attack. Could be BS, I don't know. But do know it's the crew members who will get nailed, if anybody.

[different clue]

b,

I was listening to the Diane Rehm show recently about Afghanistan subjects and a sensible-sounding expert on there said the same thing about some Afghan forces entering the hospital sometime in the past to forcibly take out some wounded Taliban. (This expert said the Afghan forces shot some people inside the hospital though.)

So anyway, this expert suggested that it was highly plausible that a high-enough level Afghan called in an air strike on the hospital falsely reporting it to be a fortified Taliban position. The motive was suggested to be pure vengeance and spite on the plausible Afghan air strike caller-inner's part.

[optimax]

Wapo:

"According to an individual familiar with the aircraft’s operations that night, the sensor operators identified fighters moving into and firing from one of the hospital’s front porticos. The crew, piloting an aircraft that rarely targets buildings, asked the JOC twice if they wanted the aircraft to engage, the individual said. How close active Taliban forces may have been to the hospital — a point where the accounts of the charity’s personnel and Afghan security officials diverge — is now a central question for investigators. Even if Taliban militants were firing from the compound, U.S. rules of engagement would not have allowed an airstrike if the crew knew it was a protected civilian facility."\

Can't seem to link to the WaPo article from 10/10/15.

[Tigershark]

Col.

Or this. Units unfamiliar with the area. The "fog of war"

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/us/politics/hospital-attack-fueled-by-units-new-to-kunduz.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[Amir]

Please check the following link for direct info and pics from MSF: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/10/open-thread-4-october-2015.html#comment-6a00d8341c72e153ef01b7c7d8a226970b

[Amir]

The argument that the locals caused this tragedy is counterintuitive: all would have benefited from the hospital: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Army_ethnolinguistic_map_of_Afghanistan_--_circa_2001-09.jpg It is located in a Pashtun area, surrounded by Uzbeks and Tajiks. The former forms the bulk of Taliban while the latter is government related.
Please see my post from 4th of Oct: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/10/open-thread-4-october-2015.html#comment-6a00d8341c72e153ef01b7c7d8a226970b
If, by locals, you mean government/ISAF affiliated forces, there might be a possibility there as they will probably not feel connected to the geographic location.

[Patrick Bahzad]

When I say locals, I don't mean local populations, or local Taleban, I mean local allies of the US.

This kind of "local", who carved out local fiefdoms for themselves and their cronies, will have absolutely no second feelings about destroying a hospital if it serves their interests.

[Ulenspiegel]

"When a previous airstrike in the same area killed 140 civilians based on some German Colonel not respecting the ROE, there wasn't such an outcry."

In Germany there was. You have only to read the comments on the blog "Augen geradeaus".

[Johnny Reims]

Thanks, Willy. Look forward to reading more.

I note that you mention that the Afghan acting DM, Masoom Stanekzi, apparently defended the attack. This would seem to increase the probability (I have no idea to what degree) of Afghan involvement in making the operational decision, thus supporting the possible motivations given by General Ali and PB.

But I keep coming back to the claim by Vice News that a US military lawyer signed off on the Kuduz attack. As for myself, if the claim is true, then I sure would like to review any document he/she "signed off" on and then ask a few questions. Good chance that either the lawyer or the document "lied", one would think. If nothing else, a good place to start investigating, imo.

Good luck with all of this, and I appreciate your taking the time to investigate the cause of the attack and bringing various aspects to light. Most definitively a relevant inquiry.

[LeaNder]

BB, my mind too seems to be attracted to the wider field around this specific scenario, which I am assuming is well enough rendered, minus the numbers 4 or 5, one every 15 minutes?:

"Doctors without Borders officials say the U.S. airplane made five separate strafing runs over an hour, directing heavy fire on the main hospital building, which contained the emergency room and intensive care unit. Surrounding buildings were not struck, they said."

Basically I assume that the Horowitz type of "elitist" take on matters is not unique, maybe even exists within Afghanistan's political/military elites and subordinates. ... But I would have been slightly disappointed if no ISI agent surfaced in context, narrativewise. ;)

[Will]

So what is going on with Konduz province? I thought this was the home of the National Alliance. Remember the Konduz airlift of 2001 when the Pakistanis with their Al-Qaeda and Taliban "assets" got out of town. Between the Uzbeks and Tajiks, Konduz province is over 50% non Phustun (22%). And it's a well watered place unlike much of Afghanistan.

Maybe I"m making a bad assumption estimating that most Talibans are Pushtun.

[LeaNder]

Ryan, not least since his "Freedom Center" initially was the "Center for the Study of Popular Culture" I would not really want to deny him some type of strategic outlook.

Why study the public mind or the hoi palloi/οἱ πολλοί out there, if you don't also want to give answers into how to change it for the benefit of your sponsors?

[BostonB]

Is it me or is anyone else surprised by the relative lack of lethality given the weapons used and the duration of the attack? How is it that 30-40 minutes into this attack there are people on the scene making calls. And after the hour-long attack there are quite a few survivors around to describe the attack. And apparently, a lot of deaths were immobile patients who died in their beds from the accompanying fire. So much for the AC-130's moniker "world's deadliest aircraft".

[LeaNder]

esq, is this a basic statement or do you distrust whatever MSF lets us know?

[Babak Makkinejad]

You have a point.

Saudi Arabia, Sudan, UAE, Qatar are attacking a defenseless country - and nary a peep comes out of anyone regarding this clear violation of international law. Nor is there any widespread condemnation from US, EU, Canada, Australia, China, Russia.

Nay, the belligerent Arabs are also rewarded with UNSC legal cover for their campaign of murder against civilians.

I think it is clear that the idea of restoration of the institutions of Peace of Yalta - espoused by both Putin and Obama during their speeches at UN General Assembly - was just boiler-plate.

Israelis are going to b tarred by their treatment of the Palestinians as long as they continue the occupation. That is one price that they are paying for their own misdeeds.

[LeaNder]

" a period of 30 - 60 minutes despite repeated communications from MSF means that US commanders knew exactly what they were doing."

Michael, that's pretty easy to understand from MSF's point of view. I would assume in this context minutes extend to felt hours, and I do not want to deny their experience at all. But what exact number did they call, and what would have been the military routine from there on? ...

[turcopolier]

Valissa

"Intelligence" in this sense simply means information. My point was that people specifically in the business of producing usable information as a trade were unlikely to have been involved unless someone in the operational chain of command thought to ask them when the request for a strike on the hospital arrived at the commander's decision point. pl

[turcopolier]

mbrenner

"... it was on a protected list and someone asked for an exceptional strike against it nonetheless?" Yes, that is what I think must have been the case. pl

[esq]

Basic statement. There is evidence in both directions re: whether armed Taliban were present. Hopefully the facts will get cleared up.

[LeaNder]

BB, interesting comment. Can you get back to us with a little research on what communicative means MFS used and further providing us with evidence that hits on what appears to be the main unit, would have stopped all communication. My experience from NGO's is that concerning communications they are prepared for worst case scenarios, wouldn't they be in Kundus, Afghanistan?

But then, i know close to nothing about the take over of the city.

[Bryn P]

Would we be enjoying the benefit of your experience and expertise here today, Colonel, if the US jets which attacked you had continued to do so for another 30 or so minutes after being informed of their mistake? It is the very duration of the attack on the hospital which frankly makes me question whether it was a simple error of judgment.

[turcopolier]

Bryn P

A flight of two F-4s making one pass with 20 MM Gatling guns is nothing like what happened to the hospital. Once the air crew was ordered to attack the building it would have done so more or less continuously until they thought the target was wrecked. Your sarcasm is not amusing. "... another 30 or so minutes after being informed of their mistake?" You are saying that the air crew continued to attack after being informed of their mistake? I have not seen that anywhere. Citation? pl

[turcopolier]

All

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/us/politics/hospital-attack-fueled-by-units-new-to-kunduz.html?_r=0

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/lawmaker-troubled-army-intelligence-system-down-during-kunduz-hospital-attack-1.374139

In these two articles you probably have the essence of what happened in this goatf**k. firstly the SF team from 1st SFGA was unfamiliar with this part of Afghanistan. This makes a big difference at night and in the midst of a serious ground action. Secondly, this automated information sharing system was not working. I have always been opposed to such systems because they enable operational commanders to act as their own intelligence officers. I have seen many men die because operational commanders and their staffs refused to consult professional intelligence people. The operators harbor a deep seated belief that they don't need the informed judgment of intelligence people. Systems like this one are designed to reinforce that belief. pl

[Willy B]

All this lends new meaning to the term "fog of war," doesn't it.