Afghanistan defense minister says Taliban was in MSF Doctors Without Borders hospital blown up by US - CBS News
It is interesting to listen to the Afghanistan defense minister. He argues that Taliban were using the hospital as "Safe Haven" for fighting forces ... and that the request for airstrike on the basis that it was being so used again was integral to the call for airborne fires.
This points to a tricky problem of a coalition operation and who is using what RoE. It's a bit of a minefield, as this instance shows.
Also tricky is the tidbit of info (not sure of its quality) that a Pakistani operative was involved in this whole mess and was in aid of the Taliban in Kunduz. Nothing quite as simple as it seems, but one thing I learned is that RoE has (in some cases) restrictions placed on the operators for political reasons ... which means that the political sorts are willing to accept more friendly casualties for the political aim of ... not looking bad. (Or worse, since bad is a given anymore ...)
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-analy...ctors-deny-it/
The intelligence suggested the hospital was being used as a Taliban command
and control center and may have housed heavy weapons.
-- snip--
It would be significant if U.S. intelligence had concluded that Pakistani spies were continuing to play an active role helping the Taliban. The U.S. and Afghan governments have long accused Pakistan of aiding the Taliban, but U.S. rhetoric on the issue has cooled over the past year as American-Pakistani
counterterrorism cooperation has improved.