US commander says Afghans requested US airstrike in Kunduz

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. airstrike that killed 22 at a medical clinic in northern Afghanistan over the weekend was requested by Afghan forces who reported being under Taliban fire, and was not sought by U.S. forces, the top commander of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan said Monday.

Gen. John F. Campbell made the statement at a hastily arranged Pentagon news conference. He said he was correcting an initial U.S. statement that said the airstrike had been in response to threats against U.S. forces.

"We have now learned that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces," Campbell said. "An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck. This is different from the initial reports which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the airstrike was called on their behalf."

His revised account does not clarify whether the clinic was targeted in error or whether other mistakes may have been made by U.S. forces.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_STATES_AFGHANISTAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-05-09-29-47

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1. MSF 'Disgusted' By Officials Justifying Attack

Medecins Sans Frontieres on Monday demanded a full, transparent and independent investigation into the bombing of their hospital in Kunduz and said they were "disgusted" by the recent statements from some Afghan officials who have tried to justify the attack that killed 22 people.

According to Christopher Stokes, General Director of the organization: ""MSF is disgusted by the recent statements coming from some Afghanistan government authorities justifying the attack on its hospital in Kunduz. These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital – with more than 180 staff and patients inside – because they claim that members of the Taliban were present."

"This amounts to an admission of a war crime," he said adding that it "utterly contradicts the initial attempts of the US government to minimise the attack as 'collateral damage'."

"There can be no justification for this abhorrent attack on our hospital that resulted in the deaths of MSF staff as they worked and patients as they lay in their beds. MSF reiterates its demand for a full transparent and independent international investigation," he said.

http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanistan/21729-msf-disgusted-by-officials-justifying-attack

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2. Kunduz Airstrikes Are NATO 'Admission Of War Crime'

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"We do know that American air assets... were engaged in the Kunduz vicinity, and we do know that the structures that - you see in the news - were destroyed," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Sunday. "I just can't tell you what the connection is at this time."

http://www.ibtimes.com/afghanistan-kunduz-airstrikes-are-nato-admission-war-crime-22-die-airstrikes-doctors-2126801

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3. Why Afghanistan Is Going To Fall To The Taliban Again. And It's Not Why You Think.

Last week, the Taliban began the process of retaking Afghanistan, starting with the northern city of Kunduz. The U.S. and Afghan governments have since been battling to recapture it -- a fight that included the U.S. bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed at least 12 medical staff, along with at least seven patients, on Saturday.

The Taliban has since charged that Afghan intelligence purposely gave the U.S. the hospital's coordinates. Even the possibility that such an accusation is true -- and the duration of the sustained attack suggests that something unusual happened -- points toward the reason that Afghanistan is headed back toward Taliban control: The government is thoroughly corrupt, and the U.S. has been unwilling to take measures to address the situation. While a handful of civilian and military leaders identified corruption as an existential threat to the country, the problem remains unsolved.

After covering the invasion of Afghanistan, former NPR journalist Sarah Chayes decided to stay in the country to try to help turn it around. She opened a business in Kandahar and probably spent more time living directly with the Afghan people -- without security guards -- than any other American since 2001. Chayes ultimately went to work for coalition forces in the region, sharing the fundamental insight she'd gained: Corruption was eroding public support of the government. She won audiences with all the right people, and even made some converts, but ultimately, her counsel wasn't taken by the U.S. government as a whole.

Chayes turned her experience into the groundbreaking book Thieves of State, which forecasts that corrupt governments will continue to be the targets of insurgents who win public support. Like the Iraqi army did in Mosul and elsewhere a year earlier, the Afghan army and police in Kunduz simply melted away.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sarah-chayes-kunduz_56103348e4b0768127024d1b

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4. Taliban controls or contests scores of districts in Afghanistan

While fighting for control of the provincial capital of Kunduz, the Taliban launched a wider offensive in the Afghan north aimed at seizing control of districts in four provinces: Badakhshan, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Takhar. Since Sept. 28, the Taliban has taken control of nine districts in these four provinces and another in the western province of Farah.

The Long War Journal has been tracking the Taliban’s attempts to gain control of territory since NATO ended its military mission in Afghanistan and switched to an “advise and assist” role in June 2014. The map, above, is an attempt to document the Taliban’s advances since the summer of 2014. The districts displayed (red for Taliban contested, black for Taliban control) include only those where The Long War Journal was able to determine a Taliban presence based on open source information, which includes press reports and the Taliban’s claims of control. While the Taliban does exaggerate in its propaganda, its territorial claims have proven to be mostly accurate in the past.

“Contested” means that the government may be in control of the district center, but little else, and the Taliban controls large areas or all of the areas outside of the district center.

“Control” means the Taliban is openly administering a district, providing services and security, and also running the local courts. Often, the district centers are under Taliban occupation or have been destroyed entirely. The Taliban does not always hold the districts it takes. It occasionally will seize a district or the district center, occupy it and fly the flag, leave after a few days, then return at a later date. These districts are considered contested at best.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/10/taliban-controls-or-contests-scores-of-districts-in-afghanistan.php

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5. . nt

[marble falls]

6. Its a US war fought by US military with US allies. Its the US fault no matter what. There is no....

amount of explaining and rationalization that will wipe up the blood on US hands.

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7. Yep, that's the problem. nt