THE US Department of Defence will not press criminal charges against any US military personnel over last year’s air raid on a hospital in Afghanistan, it announced on Thursday.

The Pentagon’s full report on the incident, in which an AC-130 gunship attacked a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz last October, killing 42 people, was expected to be published yesterday.

Patients were burned alive in their beds and medical staff killed and maimed in the raid on the clearly marked facility, which was known to Afghan and Nato forces fighting the Taliban.

Staff phoned coalition forces, telling them they were under attack as the gunship repeatedly strafed the medical centre.

But an anonymous senior US official revealed that no US servicepeople would be court-martialled over the incident.

The official said a two-star general and about 15 US military personnel will be reprimanded, including special forces.