Will we be able to trust the US' own probes into Kunduz bombing?

A boy is treated after the attack in Kunduz Credit: APTV

For Washington, the timing could not have been worse.

The Americans had just accused the Russians of causing civilian casualties with their reckless bombing of rebel targets in Syria.

In contrast, the Pentagon was highlighting its own precision strikes on Islamic extremists.

Then came Kunduz.

The burned out hospital in Kunduz Credit: AP
Twenty-two people were killed by the air strike Credit: MSF

A US Air Force AC-130 gunship, with its formidable firepower, eviscerated part of a hospital. Medical staff and patients stood no chance. At least 22 people died, including children.

Médecins sans Frontières, who operate the facility, had given precise GPS coordinates to the US and Afghan militaries to prevent precisely such a tragedy.

MSF has said there is evidence it was a war crime, and demanded an independent international investigation.

That won't happen.

It is a core American position to make sure that US military personnel are never subject to international criminal courts or to the scrutiny of those it distrusts. The US Department of Defence worries about setting a precedent that would see American servicemen and women in the docks of foreign courts.

Instead there will be several parallel US probes into the bombing. But can we trust them?

The US story has changed several times in the last 48 hours. Who called in the strikes? Why was the US military not aware of such a major medical facility in the middle of the firefight? Or did the aircrew of the AC-130 know but knowingly break their rules of engagement? Or are the rules themselves deeply flawed?

We will need to wait to find out.

But the next time America reproaches Moscow for its callous disregard of civilian lives in Syria or elsewhere, the Kremlin can reply with a single word: Kunduz.