On 4 September 2009, a German colonel ordered an airstrike near Kunduz in Afghanistan, and civilians were killed. A report on the strike reached the operations staff of the defense ministry on 14 September 2009. Franz Josef Jung, the defense minister at the time, later had to admit this. On 26 November 2009, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, was dismissed. A state secretary, Peter Wichert, was relieved of his duties, with reference to information withheld inside the ministry. Jung, who had become labor minister in the meantime, resigned on 27 November 2009. He said: Ich übernehme damit die politische Verantwortung für die interne Informationspolitik des Bundesverteidigungsministeriums gegenüber dem Minister bezüglich der Ereignisse vom 4. September in Kunduz. (I hereby take political responsibility for the defense ministry’s internal handling of information toward the minister concerning the events of 4 September in Kunduz.) He also said he had informed the public and parliament correctly about what he knew. In its wording, the statement takes responsibility for the flow of information, not for the airstrike.