However, a body of evidence has since emerged, some of which has been obtained by the Bureau, that contradicts the US claims.

On 8 November, the United Nations said that its initial investigations suggested at least 10 civilians had died. The Bureau spoke to the director of a Kunduz hospital, who said that six injured civilians had been admitted from the Chardara strike. A New York Times reporter also saw six patients in the hospital, who said they were injured in the strike.

Then, in the evening of 14 November, an RS spokesperson sent a statement to the Bureau, which appears to call into question the US's earlier position. The spokesperson explained some of the challenges of identifying civilians.

The Bureau had asked RS for a clarification on the logic behind the US's statement that it had not killed civilians in the Kunduz strike. The spokesman said that they carry out "all forensic actions available" to investigate casualty claims when they arise, including personal interviews with local residents and visits to medical facilities.

But he added:

"Our forces take every precaution to conduct all operations in a way that all civilian casualties are avoided. There are times when the insurgency forces civilians to take part in activities resembling that of an enemy combatant. It's these cases where it's possible civilians could be mistaken as members of the insurgency based on their offensive activities and therefore engaged by coalition air weapons team."

The statement is significant because the deputy police chief and a former district governor, alongside residents, say the civilians who were killed in Kunduz on 4 November had been forced by the Taliban to collect the bodies of insurgents killed in the previous night’s strikes.

When asked by the Bureau if civilians had been accidentally killed in Kunduz on 4 November, because they had been coerced in to activity "resembling that of an enemy combatant", the RS spokesperson said he had provided the Bureau with a hypothetical example of how RS and NGOs could come up with different civilian casualty figures.

The incident remains contested. The Afghan Ministry of Defence said it had launched a probe, however a spokesperson for the Afghan commando forces told The New York Times shortly after the strike that no civilians had been killed. If the death toll of 10 civilians is confirmed, it would make the Chardara strike one of the biggest mistakes US aircraft have made in Afghanistan this year.