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Airstrike on hospital has not weakened Afghan support for U.S. presence

Jim Michaels
USA TODAY

An apparent U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people in an international hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, has shown no sign of undermining the Afghan government's unwavering support for a continued presence of U.S. forces in the country.

“I think the two sides can weather this tragedy,” said Lisa Curtis, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation. “There’s a lot of trust and confidence between the two governments.”

The Pentagon pledged a full investigation into Saturday's attack on the hospital, which was run by the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders. The group, which withdrew from the city following the airstrike, said the bombing destroyed the hospital, killing 10 patients and 12 staff members.

On Monday, the Pentagon revised its account of the airstrike, saying it came at the request of Afghan forces and not to protect American advisers.

“We have now learned that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces,” Army Gen. John Campbell, the top commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said at a Pentagon briefing.

“An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck,” he said. “This is different from the initial reports which indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and the airstrike was called on their behalf.”

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been supportive of the presence of U.S. forces in his country, a sharp contrast to his predecessor. Hamid Karzai regularly assailed the U.S. military for errant strikes on civilians and refused to sign an agreement to allow American forces to remain after the combat mission ended.

After the Kunduz bombing, Ghani released a statement saying that he mourned the loss of lives, but did not criticize the U.S. presence.

“Both the government and population accept (the airstrike) not as a good thing but as a reality of war and they want the U.S. to remain,” said Seth Jones, an analyst at RAND Corp.

The value of continued U.S. support was evident in the Kunduz offensive. The U.S. military launched airstrikes around the city as Afghan government forces pushed the Taliban out over the past week. U.S. advisers, meanwhile, assisted Afghan commandos and other forces involved in the offensive.

Most coalition advisers are distant from fighting units and Campbell confirmed that coalition forces were not directly engaged in combat around Kunduz.

Afghan commandos, who are closely advised by American Special Forces and are considered some of the best forces in the region, were heavily engaged in the fight to retake Kunduz, the largest Afghan city to fall to the militants since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power in 2001.

The Taliban often fight using civilians as human shields to avoid coalition airstrikes, according to U.S. commanders."The Taliban have decided to remain in the city and fight from within, knowingly putting civilians at significant risk or harm," Campbell said of Kunduz.

Civilian damage from U.S. airstrikes is rare now, as the number of bombings has declined. There were 328 such sorties through Sept. 30 this year, compared to 1,136 during all last year, according to military data.

U.S. airstrikes generally occur now only to protect remaining coalition forces in Afghanistan or to respond to a dire threat, such as the survival of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

As the number of foreign troops has declined, responsibility for fighting the Taliban has shifted to Afghanistan’s government forces.

The number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan has dropped below 10,000, and most American forces are expected to leave next year under the current timetable. However, the White House is considering  plans to leave a residual U.S. presence after 2016.

Fall of Afghan city poses big test for U.S.

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