A day before an American warplane attacked the hospital, a senior officer in the US Army Green Beret unit wrote in a report that American forces had discussed the hospital with the country director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), presumably in Kabul, according to two people who have seen the document.
The death toll from the attack has now reached 30 people.
MSF has accused US forces of deliberately targeting the hospital, saying the charity had provided the facility’s coordinates to all parties involved in the conflict.
Separately, in the days before the attack, "an official in Washington" asked MSF "whether our hospital had a large group of Taliban fighters in it," spokesman Tim Shenk said in an email to the AP. "We replied that this was not the case. We also stated that we were very clear with both sides to the conflict about the need to respect medical structures."
US officials have said the American forces would never have intentionally fired on a medical facility, and it is unclear why the Green Beret unit requested the strike.
"MSF report that they have personnel in the trauma center," the October 2 report by a senior Green Beret officer from 3rd Special Forces Group said, according to two people who have seen it. The report adds that the trauma center was under the control of insurgents, the sources told the AP.
Even if the United States believed the Taliban were operating from the hospital, the presence of staff and wounded patients inside would have barred an air attack.
The coordinates of the hospital were sent to "all friendly forces," the report said, noting that among the US objectives for the next day was to "clear the trauma center" of enemy forces, according to the AP.
Doctors without Borders officials say the hospital was not under Taliban control and that no gunmen were operating from within the compound. The organization has made war crime accusations and demanded an independent investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission.
The United States has to date rejected calls for an independent probe. US officials say the two American investigations, along with an Afghan investigation, are sufficient.
