KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Oct. 4 (UPI) — Doctors Without Borders staff have left the hospital in the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan, that was bombed in airstrikes blamed on the U.S.-led NATO coalition.
At least 22 people died in the airstrikes, including Doctors Without Borders staff. Some medics have moved to other clinics in Kunduz to treat those injured.
Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, confirmed a U.S. airstrike conducted at about 2:15 a.m. local time Saturday “may have caused collateral damage to a nearby health facility.”
The hospital was bombed at approximately 15 minute intervals between 2:08 a.m. and 3:15 a.m. local time, the organization said. The airstrikes destroyed part of the hospital and sparked fires that burned for hours.
Doctors Without Borders, known officially as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said that “we cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as ‘collateral damage.'”
“Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US airstrike on Saturday morning,” MSF said in a statement. “The hospital was repeatedly and precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.”
At least 10 patients and 12 MSF staff died in the airstrikes. There were more than 80 MSF staff and 105 patients and their caretakers in the hospital at the time of the attack.
“Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, a transparent investigation must be conducted by an independent international body,” MSF added.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the Department of Defense “has launched a full investigation.”
“We will await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive judgment as to the circumstances of this tragedy,” Obama said in a statement.
In the past week, U.S. military jets have conducted airstrikes in Kunduz after the Taliban overwhelmed Afghan forces on Monday.
