UPDATE: Did the U.S. military actually know they were bombing the Doctors Without Borders hospital full of innocent people?

Despite calls to cease, the bombs continued to fall

In a log released by Doctors Without Borders on Thursday for a report on the October 3 bombing of its Kunduz, Afghanistan medical facility, it was revealed that the United States military was aware the building was not in use as a Taliban headquarters.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - UPDATE: Following a thorough investigation of last month's U.S. airstrike on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, General John Campbell, top NATO and U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, announced the incident "was the direct result of human error compounded by systems and procedural failures."
General Campbell added that American forces involved in the strike were unaware their target was a hospital and acted on the belief they were attacking a building where combatants were reported to be.

The hospital was treating Afghan civilians, Taliban fighters and civilians when the United States released nearly an hour-long airstrike on the building and the surrounding area. The Doctors Without Borders report shows the first bombs from a U.S. AC-130 gunship fell between two and 2:08 a.m. 

The medical organization, known as Médecins Sans Frontičres Global (MSF), called for the airstrikes to stop to no avail. Some time after the conclusion of the bombing, a Doctors Without Borders representative received a text from a U.S. military official saying, "I'll do my best. Praying for you all."
The Doctors Without Borders report explains patients were "burned in their beds, medical staff were decapitated and lost limbs, and others were shot by the circling AC-130 gunship while fleeing the burning building. At least 30 MSF staff and patients were killed."
Joanne Liu, MSF's international president, wrote a letter included with the report. In her letter she wrote, "The question remains as to whether our hospital lost protected status in the eyes of the military forces engaged in this attack - and if so, why. This answer does not lie within the MSF hospital. Those responsible for requesting, ordering and approving the airstrikes hold these answers."
Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that MSF shared its report with the military before releasing it to the public and thanked them for doing so before reporting that Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, met with MSF leaders on Wednesday.
Davis said, "We continue to work closely with MSF in identifying the victims killed and wounded so we can conclude our investigations and proceed with follow-on actions, to include condolence payments. We're also committed to working with MSF to determine the full extent of the damage on the hospital so that it can be repaired in full."
According tho the Doctors Without Borders report, "A series of multiple, precise and sustained airstrikes targeted the main hospital building, leaving the rest of the buildings in the MSF compound comparatively untouched. This specific building of the hospital correlates exactly with the GPS coordinates provided to the parties to the conflict (GPS coordinates were taken directly in front of the main hospital building that was hit in the airstrikes)."
At no more than eleven minutes following the first bombing, the report said an MSF official called the top U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan to say the hospital had been hit, but the airstrike continued. One minute later, MSF called the International Committee of the Red Cross and two minutes after that MSF called a Defense Department official in Washington and a United Nations liaison in Afghanistan, but still the airstrikes persisted.
A military official at the U.S. military headquarters in Kabul apologized via text, saying, "I'm sorry to hear that, I still do not know what happened."
Doctors Without Borders continue to push for an independent investigation and Gen. Campbell told The Post he would not submit to an international investigation, but expects initial results of the military's investigation soon. He also said he would not comment on the specifics of what happened until the conclusion of the investigation.
"I want to make sure we get it right the first time," he said. "I will be very open and transparent with everything I can be to make sure we learn from that and that we tell the world what happened and why it happened."
On October eighth, Gen. Campbell told the House Armed Services Committee he expected investigation results in approximately thirty days.

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