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Sixteen military personnel, including a general officer, have been disciplined for their role in a mistaken airstrike which killed 42 people in Afghanistan in October 2015, said General Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, Friday at a news briefing.
The military probe into the tragic incident prompted a range of disciplinary actions. One officer was suspended from command, six were sent to counseling, seven were issued letters of reprimand, and two were ordered to retraining courses, according a USA Today report.
The Pentagon on Friday said the deadly Afghan hospital airstrike in October 2015 was not a war crime and the U.S. personnel who carried out the bombings will not face war crime charges because it was unintentional.
"The incident resulted from a combination of human errors, process errors and equipment failures and that none of the personnel knew they were striking a hospital," Votel told reporters at the briefing.
"Today's (Pentagon) briefing amounts to an admission of an uncontrolled military operation in a densely populated urban area, during which U.S. forces failed to follow the basic laws of war," said Meinie Nicolai, MSF president.
Nicolai said MSF will take time to examine the Pentagon probe report but "it cannot be satisfied solely with a military investigation into the Kunduz attack."
On Oct. 3, 2015, a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship aircraft targeted a civilian hospital, located in northern Afghanistan city of Kunduz, which was run by the Doctors Without Borders (MSF), killing 42 people.
The attack on the MSF trauma facility triggered global outrage and forced President Barack Obama to make an apology on behalf of the U.S. military still deployed in Afghanistan.
MSF condemned the airstrike as a war crime and has repeatedly demanded an international investigation.
The Pentagon conducted a military probe which determined the U. S. forces involved in the airstrike mistook the hospital for another compound that was serving as a Taliban headquarters. Enditem
（APD）
