Campbell declined to address the rules of engagement for the USA military troops in Kunduz and who specifically had ordered the airstrike, citing the ongoing investigation.
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Doctors Without Borders, the worldwide aid group that ran the hospital, responded in a statement that the USA “description of the attack keeps changing – from collateral damage to a tragic incident, to now attempting to pass responsibility to the Afghanistan government”.
The airstrike that struck the hospital in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 22 people, was not called in by US troops, the general in charge of USA forces in Afghanistan said Monday.
‘These statements imply that Afghan and U.S. forces working together chose to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital with more than 180 staff and patients inside because they claim that members of the Taliban were present, ‘ he said. The White House said that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will be conducting its own separate investigation and that the U.S. Air Force and the Afghan military will be conducting a third investigation.
“If errors are committed, we’ll acknowledge them”, Campbell said. We will hold those responsible accountable, and we will take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated.
“It is 12 MSF staff members and 10 patients, including three children, who were killed in the attack”, MSF General Director Christopher Stokes, said. Bombs struck the main hospital building housing the intensive care unit and emergency rooms – surrounding buildings were unharmed.
The Afghan and US governments have pledged a full investigation, which could take a few days.
The Afghan government has said that Taliban fighters were hiding in the hospital, something that Doctors Without Borders has categorically denied. Calls to the USA military and NATO made by the organisation to call off the strikes failed.
“Unfortunately the Taliban have chose to remain in the city and fight from within, knowingly putting civilians at significant risk of harm”, he said. “They come to be healed, and to actually be targeted in this way – we have seen very sick patients that were recovering from operations unable to defend, protect themselves, and literally burned alive in their beds”. Another 37 people were wounded, according to the global charity group, which works in conflict zones to help victims of war and other tragedies. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said on Sunday: “At a few point in the course of the events there (they) did report that they, themselves, were coming under attack”. The Taliban captured the city earlier this month, but Afghan forces retook it after several days. On Monday, reports said police and residents said that Afghan forces had regained control of most of the besieged city and a few shops in the centre of the provincial capital opened for the first time since it fell a week ago.
Doctors Without Borders said it would be satisfied only with an investigation by an independent, outside authority.
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The United Nations decried the incident as “inexcusable,” with the body’s human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, suggesting that the raid may amount to “a war crime”.
