The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan admitted Tuesday that the U.S. "mistakenly" launched the airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that killed 22 people.
ABC News reported that Gen. John Campbell informed the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. chain of command approved the airstrike, which was ordered by Afghan forces early Saturday morning.
"We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility," Campbell said. "I must allow the investigation to take its course and, therefore, I’m not at liberty to discuss further specifics at this time. However, I assure you that the investigation will be thorough, objective and transparent."
The hospital in Kunduz is run by Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières. The charity said Sunday that the medical facility is no longer functional and that patients and staff members have been relocated to other hospitals in the area following the airstrike.
Shortly after the strike, President Obama promised that there would be a "full investigation" into the incident.
Campbell said that he has instructed the U.S. forces to undergo retraining on the rules of engagement.
"To prevent any future incidences of this nature, I’ve directed the entire force to undergo in-depth training in order to review all of our operational authorities and rules of engagement," he told the Senate committee.
Afghan forces have claimed that Taliban fighters were firing from the grounds of the hospital.
"The Afghan forces on the ground requested air support from our forces there on the ground, but as I said in my opening statement, even though the Afghans requested air support, it still has to go through a rigorous U.S. procedure to enable fires to go on the ground," Campbell said Tuesday.
"We had a special operations unit that was in close vicinity that was talking to the aircraft that delivered those fires."
Médecins Sans Frontières has harshly criticized the U.S. for the casualties at the hospital, labeling it a "war crime."
"The U.S. government has admitted that it was their airstrike that hit our hospital in Kunduz and killed 22 patients and MSF staff," the group said in a statement Monday after Campbell disclosed that Afghan forces ordered the strikes.
"Their description of the attack keeps changing--from collateral damage, to a tragic incident, to now attempting to pass responsibility to the Afghanistan government. The reality is the U.S. dropped those bombs. The U.S. hit a huge hospital full of wounded patients and MSF staff."