Analysts slam US account of MSF hospital strike

A US investigation into a strike on a charity-run Afghan hospital cited mistakes so "reckless" that observers said they left open the unsettling question of whether those involved had ripped up their own rulebook in a chaotic effort to take out the Taliban.

The October 3 strike on a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz was "primarily human error... compounded by systems and procedural failures", said General John Campbell, the US commander in Afghanistan, as he announced the results of the investigation this week. 

The strike came after a resurgent Taliban briefly captured the northern provincial capital in their biggest military victory since they were toppled in 2001.

But a catalogue of errors Cambell listed that ultimately resulted in the AC-130 gunship firing on the hospital went against safeguards that had "long been standard operating procedure", Kate Clark of Afghanistan Analysts Network said. 

"The question remains whether the disregard of these procedures was intentional", she wrote, underscoring the need for an independent international inquiry into the strike which killed 30 people and which observers have said could amount to a war crime. 

Analysts have also pointed to unanswered questions in the report -- particularly regarding what Afghan forces on the ground were doing throughout the attack -- and said some of the systems failures described were beyond comprehension. 

Photo : © AFP/File / by Issam Ahmed, Sarah Titterton