U.S. military mistakes hospital for Taliban target in deadly strike: report

The U.S. military mistook an Afghan hospital last month for a nearby compound suspected of housing Taliban fighters in an airstrike that killed 22 civilians, according to local media report.

A U.S. military investigation found that the airstrike was supposed to be targeting a site from which Taliban militants were firing, said CNN after interviewing U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Instead, the warplane pummeled a hospital owned by Doctors Without Borders, an international medical aid agency also known by its French language acronym MSF, said the report.

The Pentagon will on Wednesday hold a briefing at 9:30 a.m. local time (1430 GMT) to discuss information about the investigation, according to schedule offered by the U.S. military.

Currently, three investigations are being carried out by the United States, NATO and the Afghan government. White House officials had said earlier that the investigative effort underway would be "transparent, thorough and objective."

"But none of these (investigations) is independent and impartial," Marjorie Cohn, professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"If the U.S. government really believes it did nothing wrong, it should not resist an independent, impartial investigation sponsored by the United Nations," said Cohn, referring to a previous request by the MSF to demand an investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC).

Established under the Geneva Conventions in 1991, the IHFFC cannot carry out an investigation without the consent of countries involved. So far, the White House has not consented to MSF's demand. Endi