US President, Obama issued his apologies on Wednesday to the head of “Doctors without Borders” over a telephone call for the air strikes on the Afghan clinic killing almost 22 civilians. During the call, President Obama expressed regret over the tragic incident and offered his thoughts and prayers on behalf of the American people to the victims of this incident, their families, and loved ones. Yesterday, a USA general called it a mistake.
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Taliban militants seized the strategic city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan after 14 hours of intense fighting last Monday. The USA military has since admitted that the strike was a mistake.
Mr Obama spoke to the aid group’s worldwide president, Joanne Liu, on Wednesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “You could not miss it”, Liu said.
“This was not just an attack on our hospital – it was an attack on the Geneva conventions. This can not be tolerated”.
For the IHFFC to be mobilized, a single country would have to call for the fact-finding mission, and the US and Afghanistan – which are not signatories – must also give their consent. Without addressing that demand, the White House offered assurances that the Pentagon would dutifully carry out its internal probe. “If we don’t safeguard that medical space for us to do our activities, then it is impossible to work in other contexts like Syria, South Sudan, like Yemen”, she said. “It’s about being able to care for populations in conflict area”, Liu added.
Speaking to reporters in Kabul, Guilhem Molinie said 24 of the 461 hospital staff members working in the Kunduz trauma center are still missing. Our colleagues had to operate on each other.
He pressed for an independent global investigation by the worldwide Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, an worldwide body that investigates potential breaches of worldwide humanitarian law.
Three separate investigations-by the USA military, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghan officials-are underway into the deadly strike on Saturday. The insurgents, who have been massing around the city for months, launched a multi-pronged attack that took authorities by surprise.
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Earnest said “there is no evidence that…”
