Some in military suspended for deadly Afghan hospital attack

WASHINGTON — American soldiers and airmen who killed and wounded dozens of civilians in a strike on an Afghanistan hospital violated U.S. rules of engagement and have been suspended as they await disciplinary action, military officials said Wednesday.

Briefing reporters on the results of two investigations, Gen. John Campbell, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, described an egregious series of human and technical failures that led a U.S. warplane to destroy a medical charity's hospital in northern Afghanistan last month. Campbell and other officials would not say how many people had been removed from their jobs nor whether anyone higher in the chain of command would be subject to discipline.

"This was a tragic but avoidable accident caused primarily by human error," Campbell said.

Officials said the crew of an AC-130 gunship had been dispatched to hit a Taliban command center in a different building, 450 yards away. However, hampered by problems with their targeting sensors, the crew relied on a physical description that led them to begin firing at a hospital run by the Doctors Without Borders, a medical charity, even though they saw no hostile activity there.

Many chances to avert the error were missed, officials said.

Asked whether the scale of the air attack — even if it had hit the correct target — was justified under the U.S. rules of engagement and international laws governing armed conflict, the actions taken by the U.S. aircrew were "not appropriate" to the threat they faced, said Campbell's spokesman, Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner. He declined to be more specific.

See Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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