one thing of note is that the general did not name the specific facility that doctors without borders says was its hospital and that it was very clear and noted to those within the area. at the same time, no u.s. military officials are denying that that hospital was struck by a u.s. military air strike. however, as general campbell tried to clarify an earlier report that u.s. special forces in the area came under the threat of an attack and that s why this air strike was launched. he now says that it was afghan forces that relaid the information to those special forces who then ordered the air strike by an ac-130 gunship. but that raises all sorts of serious questions. general campbell would not answer them because he said it is all still under investigation. but did those special operations forces, the americans, rely entirely on the information from the afghan soldiers to launch
perhaps both, contact the taliban, a fierce firefight ensues, and they call for air support, and what shows up is an ac-130 gunship, an aircraft originally designed as a transport, but outfitted with 105 millimeter automatic cannon, gatling guns, machine guns. these are aerial fire weapon, they re really accurate but they re not nearly as accurate as what we ve been used to, and that is precision guided munitions that are accurate down to a meter or even less. these are aerial fire weapons. i fired them myself in combat, they re accurate but not that accurate. colonel jacobs doctors without borders, they claim the air strikes continued even when they alerted fofficials their facility had been hit. here is the executive director speaking on pbs news hour. once the hospital was under
attack your agency made contact with the u.s. military, the afghan forces to tell them, and the bombs still kept falling? that is correct. we informed our contacts both in washington and kabul level and at tacks continued to happen, in spite of our efforts, both in the days prior and when the attack was unfolding. so it seems that this was not just a one, you know, you can t just say it was an accidental fire in the sense it was one bomb that accidentally or one shot that landed in the vicinity of the hospital because he s saying that we continuously warned the americans. i wanted to get your thoughts on his comments, what do you make of his comments in light of your explanation? well, first of all, they re not bombs. an ac-130 was there, these are artillery rounds and smaller caliber exploding rounds. second, think about the chain of communications, the hospital, two higher headquarters to the of agaps have to talk through
analyst explained how a war plane might accidentally open fire on a civilian hospital. he described the tragic series of mistakes. reading the eyewitness reports of what happened, it sounds like it was an ac-130 gunship. and they say bombs going off. really those were the guns on the ac-130. it carrying a 40-millimeter cannon and a howitzer. these are devastating weapons. unfortunately they were hitting the wrong target. i can tell you what happened. it was dark. things are happening very quickly. they re looking through sensors. very difficult to understand what s going on when you re in that environment. it was just a tragic series of errors. i think we re going to find out that s what happened. i agree that med sense sans frons tears need answers. we ve got to get to the bottom of this and tight unup to
change of these investigations or more likely after we her from the u.n.? we will see. that is the critical part of having an investigation. a lot of people on the ground said they believe this is what happened and there are certainly events that have occurred that caused this tragic event. but what s interesting is we really have to take a look. my experience in combat tells me the first reports are always wrong, there is always things that have happened that you re not aware of. as we were even talking yesterday, we were talking about the potential of fast moving aircraft dropping bombs. now there is a potential of an ac 130 gunship. i know most of your viewers don t know what that is but it s a slow moving cargo plane that is outfitted with cannon and guns that have direct fire pinpointed attacks. it can see what happened. all of that will be part of the investigation. the initial claim of collateral damage could be critical, critically important to all of