With the official US narrative on their attack on the Doctors Without Borders hospital having changed several times, and the White House openly opposing calls for an independent investigation into the strike, the Associated Press in now reporting that the ground troops in the area, the ones who apparently called in the strike, knew it was a hospital.

Not only that, but the Pentagon had actually ordered the troops on the ground to conduct surveillance against the hospital, on suspicion that a Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence spy was inside. Officials were even privately saying the attack on the protected hospital full of civilians was “justified” because of this, and that they believe one of the 22 slain civilians may well have been the Pakistani in question.

This dramatically undercuts US claims that the attack, likely a war crime, was “a mistake,” and President Obama’s “apology” to Doctors Without Borders, who say the new reports underscore the likelihood that the US deliberately targeted a hospital.

It also supports Doctors Without Borders’ assessment that there was no fighting anywhere near the hospital the night of the strike, suggesting the claim of a battle was a pretext for an American attack on a hospital, which was the goal in the first place.

Doctors Without Borders did, however, spurned the reports that a Pakistani ISI spy was present, saying none of the staff at the facility were Pakistani, and that they had no information that any of the patients were either.