Afghanistan
In October 2015, U.S. troops bombed a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 22 people, including patients, three children and medical personnel from Doctors Without Borders, or MSF. Thirty-seven people were injured, including 19 staff members, in the Oct. 3, 2015, attack.
US forces had to know they were targeting a hospital because MSF, as it does in all conflict contexts, had provided its exact GPS coordinates on multiple occasions. There was a nine-foot flag on the roof that identified the building as a hospital. After the first strike, MSF contacted U.S. officials and reported the hospital was being bombed and begged them to halt the attack. Nevertheless, the U.S. AC-130 gunship continued to pummel the hospital repeatedly for more than one hour. Targeting civilians violates the Geneva Conventions.
In April 2016 an Army investigation concluded U.S. forces had no intent to destroy the hospital, but rather the targeting was the result of confusion and miscommunication. Sixteen U.S. soldiers, including a general, received administrative punishments for the attack, but no criminal charges were filed.
Matthieu Aikins of the Nation Institute told the PBS News Hour, "there's evidence that Afghan forces may have provided an exact description that matched the hospital as a target, meaning that they intentionally targeted the hospital, leading to U.S. forces perhaps unintentionally striking the hospital as a result of that description."
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan found that during the first half of 2016, 5,166 civilians were killed or maimed, more than a third of them children.
African Continent
The United States continues to pursue "low-profile missions," "named operations" and "quasi-wars" in Africa, Nick Turse reported, after studying a declassified but heavily redacted secret report covering activities from 2012 to 2016.
"On any given day, between 1,500 and 1,700 American special operators and support personnel are deployed somewhere on the continent," Turse wrote on TomDispatch. "Over the course of a year they conduct missions in more than 20 countries."
Special Operations Command Africa provides training, equipment and other assistance to military forces in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen "to conduct counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaeda affiliates, and al-Shabab," as well as aiding national military forces in Somalia, Turse added.
In late November, the White House admitted "the United States is currently using military force" in Somalia, including commando raids and drone assassinations.
Israel
In late September, Obama pledged to give Israel a record $38 billion in military aid over the next 10 years, fortifying his legacy as the strongest financial supporter of Israel ever to occupy the White House. Obama, whom Israeli journalist Gideon Levy calls "the patron of the occupation," increased the amount of money the U.S. provides Israel each year from $3.1 billion to $3.8 billion.
On December 23, the UN Security Council passed a resolution reaffirming that Israel's Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, "constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace." The United States, a permanent member of the council, could have vetoed the resolution. But the U.S. abstained, allowing the resolution to pass.
China
In October, a U.S. Navy warship sailed close to islands China is claiming in the South China Sea. It was the fourth time this year the U.S. challenged what it considers China's unfounded claims in the South China Sea.
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