Campbell said that although Afghan forces requested US air power, final responsibility was with USA forces.
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Afghan protesters sit on the ground to block one of the main Kabul…
Long before Obama, experts say, presidents rarely apologized for unintended deaths from us military operations, and there’s still no consistent way the White House handles the issue.
Importantly, the laws of war require that a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation be carried out if there is prima facie evidence or credible allegations of unlawful killings.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday apologized for an errant airstrike that leveled a humanitarian hospital in Afghanistan last weekend – as Doctors Without Borders calls for an independent investigation into the matter.
“If we let this go, we are basically giving a blank cheque to any countries at war”, MSF worldwide President Joanne Liu told a news briefing in Geneva.
Obama also spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to convey condolences and praise Afghan forces for securing Kunduz, the White House said.
MSF’s hospital in Kunduz had treated almost 400 people, including a few of Taliban, wounded in heavy fighting in the days before the attack, MSF’s Bruno Jochum said.
Doctors Without Borders, widely known as MSF for its acronym in French, is seeking a war crimes probe, saying that a review led by the Pentagon or North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is insufficient.
“We can not rely on only internal military investigations by the USA, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghan forces”, she said.
Still, in response to questions, he noted that a U.S. Special Operations unit was near the site of the attack, reflecting the level of USA involvement in the skies and on the ground.
MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, which deems the attack a war crime, urged Obama to consent to a humanitarian commission established under the Geneva Conventions, even though neither the United States nor Afghanistan were signatories to the commission. There were more than 80 staff and 105 patients and their caretakers in the hospital at the time of the attack, officials said.
MSF wants an independent organization, not beholden to the USA government or its interests, to investigate why the hospital was bombed.
This was no routine air attack.
The top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that the airstrike was a mistake. That was not what happened in this case. It forced the worldwide charity, a source of hope for besieged residents, to leave the city of Kunduz. Although it was flying at night, the plane’s crew could identify ground targets through on-board video screens. Doctors Without Borders, which does not receive any governmental funds, accepts donations here. Cone said he believed that this conversation took place before the attack had ended.
The US military has already vowed to conduct an investigation and says the airstrike was a mistake.
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It is “perfectly sound” to assume the US would oppose a United Nations Security Council resolution asking for an investigation, Toner added.
