The Pentagon plans to announce Friday that up to 16 members of the military will be disciplined for their role in the October airstrike against a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that killed as many as 42 people.
None of the military personnel involved are expected to face criminal charges, two U.S. officials confirmed. A top special operations commander is likely to be fired from his job, one of those officials told CNN.
The findings and disciplinary action are expected to be announced at the Pentagon by Gen. Joseph Votel, the commanding general of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the region. The rationale for no criminal charges is that although a number of fatal mistakes were made, there was no intent to engage in criminal military behavior, the officials said.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis declined to comment until the announcement is made.
The October 3 incident happened when U.S. forces inadvertently aimed at the hospital, Gen. John Campbell, the top NATO and U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said in November.
U.S. forces meant to aim at a nearby site in which insurgents were thought to be taking shelter, according to Campbell.
“The proximate cause of this tragedy was the direct result of avoidable human error, compounded by process and equipment failures,” Campbell said.
Doctors Without Borders, known also by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres, says more than 100 patients were admitted to the hospital when it was struck.
The Pentagon concluded last year that the Doctors Without Borders group that ran the facility had followed all proper procedures in notifying the U.S. of the location of the hospital. The group “did everything right,” a U.S. official said in October.
Since December, the U.S. has made more than 170 condolence payments. But it does not disclose the amounts out of respect for the families’ privacy and to preserve the confidentiality of the process, a U.S. military official told CNN.
Hospitals, like schools and mosques, are prohibited from being attacked by the U.S. military even if there may be militants present. Doctors Without Borders has consistently said there were no Taliban fighters at the hospital on October 3 and that it was a particularly quiet night that followed several days of clashes.
In October, the Taliban had taken control of Kunduz and Afghan forces were battling them back.
The U.S., under current rules of engagement, does not strike Taliban formations unless Afghan security forces are about to be overrun. That night, there were reports of gunfire in the area, which led to a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship being called in. The hospital came under repeated attack even though the medical staff called U.S. military contacts urging them to stop their fire as the attack unfolded.
