WASHINGTON -- The Army Green Berets who requested the Oct. 3 airstrike on the Doctors Without Borders trauma center in Kunduz, Afghanistan, were aware that 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 center 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's director of the medical charity group, according to two people who have seen the document.
The attack left a mounting death toll, which is now at 30 people.
Separately, in the days before the attack, "an official in Washington" asked Doctors Without Borders "whether our hospital had a large group of Taliban fighters in it," spokesman Tim Shenk said in an email. "We replied that this was not the case. We also stated that we were very clear with both sides to the conflict about the need to respect medical structures."
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 known to have included a hospital.
Even if the U.S. believed that the Taliban were operating from the hospital, the presence of wounded patients inside would have made an air attack on it problematic under standard American rules of engagement and the international law of war.
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Roger Cabiness declined to answer questions, saying in a statement that it would be "premature to draw any conclusions" before investigations into the attack are complete.
The U.S. has determined "that the reports of civilian casualties were credible, and we continue to work with the government of Afghanistan to fully identify the victims," Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, a NATO spokesman, said in a statement. U.S. and NATO investigations, he said, "continue to look at a series of potential human errors, failures of process and technical malfunctions that may have contributed to the mistaken strike on the hospital."
"MSF report that they have personnel in the trauma center," the Oct. 2 report by a senior Green Beret officer from the 3rd Special Forces Group said, using an abbreviation for the charity's French name, according to two people who have seen it. The report adds that the trauma center was under the control of insurgents, said the sources, who would not be quoted by name because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The coordinates of the hospital were sent to "all friendly forces," the report said, noting that among the U.S. objectives for the next day was to "clear the trauma center" of enemy forces.
Doctors Without Borders officials say the hospital was not under Taliban control and that no gunmen were operating from within the compound when the AC-130 gunship made five passes, firing for an hour.
Another hospital, run by Afghanistan's health ministry a short distance away, had been overrun by the Taliban when insurgents seized the city, a senior U.S. defense official said.
The new information raises the possibility that some elements of the U.S. intelligence and military apparatus had confused the two hospitals. But other evidence argues against such confusion.
The AP has reported that American special operations analysts were gathering intelligence on the Doctors Without Borders hospital, including indications that it was being used by a Pakistani operative to coordinate Taliban activity. The intelligence gathering occurred as the U.S. was supporting the Afghan effort to retake Kunduz, which included heavy fighting by Green Berets.
The Green Berets had asked for Air Force intelligence-gathering flights over the hospital, and Green Berets and Air Force personnel were aware that it was a protected medical facility, the records show, according to the two people who have seen the documents.
Gen. John Campbell, commander of American forces in Afghanistan, has said "a special operations unit that was in close vicinity ... was talking to the aircraft that delivered those fires."
A senior Green Beret officer has told superiors that his troops, accompanying Afghan security forces, were under fire and in danger, according to a former government official familiar with his account.
Doctors Without Borders denies that any gunfire was from its compound.
Information for this article was contributed by Lynne O'Donnell of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/27/2015