The United States airstrike on an Afghanistan hospital was a mistake, General John Campbell, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has told a Senate committee.
The US must adjust its timeline for total withdrawal from Afghanistan, Campbell said.
The hearing on Capitol Hill comes days after the US admitted responsibility for an airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz that killed at least 19 people, including nine Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) staff and three children, RT reported.
Campbell said Tuesday in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the decision to carry out that bombing was made within the US chain of command.
“To be clear, the decision to provide aerial fires was a US decision made within the US chain of command,” Campbell said. “A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.”
Campbell said a US report on the Kunduz hospital airstrike could be released within 30 days.
Campbell added that he has ordered proper training for his forces to prevent another such incident like the hospital massacre.
Afghan forces “have admittedly faltered at times,” Campbell said, but he is confident they can regain Kunduz from Taliban fighters.
