American special operations analysts knew that an Afghan building bombed on Oct. 3 was a hospital days before the Doctors Without Borders clinic was destroyed in a U.S. air strike.
According to The Associated Press, intelligence analysts had assembled a dossier that included maps with the hospital circled. The analysts reportedly believed the hospital was being used by a Pakistani to coordinate Taliban operations in Kunduz.
The intelligence reports suggested the hospital was being used as a Taliban command and control center and may have housed heavy weapons, AP reported.
It’s unclear whether commanders who authorized the strike, which killed at least 22 patients and hospital staff, were aware that the site was a hospital or knew about the allegations of possible Taliban activity.
The report makes the incident all the more cloudy after General John Campbell, the U.S.’ top commander in Afghanistan told lawmakers that the hospital was mistakenly struck.
Immediately after the incident the Pentagon said the strike was called in because U.S. troops on the ground were taking fire. It was later revealed that Afghan forces had called in the strike.
SEE ALSO: International investigators ready to probe Kunduz hospital bombing
Doctors without Borders admits to having treated wounded Taliban fighters, though it maintains that no weapons were allowed in and that no one fired from within.
Doctors Without Borders has called for an outside investigation into the incident, which it claims constitutes a war crime.
With the knowledge the U.S. military officials may have known that the target was a hospital ahead of the bombing, Doctors Without Borders president of the operational directorate, Meinie Nicolai, told the AP the incident would amount to a “premeditated massacre.”
The Pentagon, Afghan government and NATO are conducting investigations into the strike, but Doctors Without Borders has also called on the U.N.’s humanitarian investigation panel to be activated for the first time.
“Reports like this underscore how critical it is for the Obama administration to immediately give consent to an independent and impartial investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to find out how and why U.S. forces attacked our hospital,” Ms. Nicolai said, AP reported.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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