Initially, the Pentagon said the airstrike was meant to protect USA special forces that were on the ground and taking fire while advising the Afghan military.
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But Campbell’s response to criticism of the U.S. airstrike during a news conference at the Pentagon did little to clarify the military’s initial claims that the strike had been an accident.
Campbell offered his “deepest condolences” to the victims.
“If errors were committed we will acknowledge them”, Campbell added.
“It joined a coalition of groups that calls for “…an independent investigation into the attack as a potential war crime, and… urges the worldwide Criminal Court…to hold those responsible for violations of global humanitarian law accountable”.
“We will await the outcome of the investigation to provide any additional updates, and we will share the results of the investigation once it is complete”.
Campbell declined to answer reporters’ questions on whether he or other Army leaders knew the hospital’s location or received Doctors Without Borders’s messages Saturday, pending the completion of the investigation.
Nor did it explain how an AC-130 gunship, a powerful and precise attack aircraft, killed 22 people, including patients and hospital staff members, during more than 30 minutes of firing on the hospital Saturday as Afghan forces fought to retake Kunduz from the Taliban. In a statement, the worldwide charity said the “sustained bombing” took place at 2:10 a.m. (21:40 GMT).
“The reality is the US dropped those bombs”, Stokes said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said United States and Afghan officials have started a joint inquiry into the incident.
“Today the USA government has admitted that it was their airstrike that hit our hospital in Kunduz and killed 22 patients and MSF staff”.
The Doctors Without Borders hospital is seen in flames, after…
Carter said he has also issued instruction to ensure that the U.S. makes available, and the coalition in Afghanistan, makes available medical care as possible, and as asked for, for folks in Kunduz.
It’s one of the worst war disasters in memory, and now the call condemning a USA air strike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan over the weekend is coming from groups across the globe.
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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the airstrikes and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said the attack “may amount to a war crime.” At the time of the bombing, the facility housed 105 patients and more than 80 M.S.F. staff members, and of the confirmed dead, 12 were staff and seven were patients. and at least 37 more people were wounded as well, including 19 staff members, five of whom are in critical condition.
