It termed the hospital as “collateral damage”.
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Assuring a transparent and thorough probe in order to fix responsibility for the attack, Campbell said: “The Afghan forces called in for fire to support them because they were under direct fire”.
The organisation is calling for an independent worldwide investigation after a “sustained bombing attack” on the hospital killed at least 22 people in the besieged northern city.
MSF on Sunday demanded an independent worldwide body conduct a “full and transparent” investigation of the bombing “under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed”.
On its Twitter feed, MSF said: “The hospital was repeatedly and precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched”.
Charity organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has expressed disappointment at the statement released by the Afghan Government justifying the air strike on its hospital in Kunduz.
Campbell said the attack was carried out by an AC-130 gunship.
When he testifies Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. John F. Campbell will be asked whether he thinks President Barack Obama should alter his plan for reducing the US troop presence after 2016 from its current level of about 9,800 to an embassy-based security operation of about 1,000.
But, MSF rejected the claims saying that not a single member of its staff reported any fighting inside the hospital prior to the USA airstrike on Saturday morning.
The head of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders says the latest USA explanation of an airstrike in Afghanistan over the weekend does nothing to absolve the United States of blame. The Taliban captured the city earlier this month, but Afghan forces retook it after several days. Calls to the us military and NATO made by the organisation to call off the strikes failed. Those who ordered the US airstrike, for whatever reason, surely had to know they were risking casualties among innocent people as well as the potential destruction of the hospital; why those factors did not appear to affect the decision is unknown. Mr Stokes also hit out at claims by Afghan officials that insurgents were using the hospital as a position to target Afghan forces and civilians. The government has since launched a counter-offensive and has regained control of the city last Monday.
Another 37 others were injured in the strike: 19 staff members, including five in critical condition, and 18 patients and caretakers, according to Jason Cone, the executive director for Doctors Without Borders in the U.S. The organization didn’t comment on the identities of the victims, but said all global staffers were alive and accounted for.
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MSF has said a U.S. investigation was “wholly” insufficient.
