DUSHANBE, October 7, 2015, Asia-Plus – Radio Liberty reports the commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan said an air strike on a hospital in the northern city of Kunduz was a mistake, as he reiterated that final approval was made by U.S. officers.

General John Campbell reportedly told the Senate Armed Services Committee on October 6 that a U.S. special operations unit was on the ground with Afghan forces, and they had been in contact with the AC-130 gunship that fired on the clinic.

“To be clear, the decision to provide aerial fire was a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command. A hospital was mistakenly struck,” he said.  “We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.”  

“Even though the Afghans requested that support, it still has to go through rigorous U.S. procedure to enable fire to go on the ground,” Campbell said, in response to questions from the committee chairman, Senator John McCain.  

“We had a special operations unit that was in close vicinity that was talking to the aircraft that delivered those fires,” he said.

Campbell said there were three investigations ongoing: by the Pentagon, NATO, and Afghan military officials.

 At a briefing later on October 6, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that senior administration officials have also met with charity officials since the incident. 

There has been conflicting information about the circumstances of the strike and who ordered it. 

According to AFP , Campbell said on October 5 that the attack was requested by Afghan forces who reported being under Taliban fire.  The U.S. military had previously claimed that insurgents had been firing at American forces.

Under questioning from senators, the U.S. general also said there needed to be more U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2016 to contend with potential Taliban offensives and to ensure the Afghan military is trained and capable of defeating them.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter later underscored the Pentagon''s regrets over the incident as he visited Rome on a five-day European tour.

But Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) dismissed claims the attack was an error and once again asserted that it amounted to a war crime.  The Swiss-based charity has called the incident a “blatant breach of humanitarian law.”

It says the hospital was well known to coalition and Afghan officials, and munitions continued to hit the facility for another 30 minutes even after the charity notified military leadership.

We will recall that MSF branded the incident a war crime.  From 2:08 am until 3:15 am local time October 3, MSF’s trauma hospital in Kunduz was reportedly hit by a series of aerial bombing raids at approximately 15 minute intervals.  The main central hospital building, housing the intensive care unit, emergency rooms, and physiotherapy ward, was repeatedly hit very precisely during each aerial raid, while surrounding buildings were left mostly untouched.

The bombing reportedly took place despite the fact that MSF had provided the GPS coordinates of the trauma hospital to Coalition and Afghan military and civilian officials as recently as Tuesday September 29 to avoid that the hospital be hit.  As is routine practice for MSF in conflict areas, MSF had communicated the exact location of the hospital to all parties to the conflict.

MSF said the October 3 aerial bombing raids killed at least 22 people, including MSF staff.  Besides the 22 people who were killed -- 12 staff members and 10 patients -- 40 others were reportedly seriously injured in the air strikes.   MSF said some 105 patients and their caregivers, as well as more than 80 international and local MSF staff, were in the hospital at the time of the bombing.

MSF denied any militants were present in the facility.