KABUL—Doctors Without Borders closed its only hospital in
northern Afghanistan after it was hit by U.S. airstrikes that the
aid organization called a war crime, while officials launched
multiple investigations into the attack.
The international medical-aid organization, also known by its
French name Mé decins Sans Frontiè res, said 12 staff members and
10 patients in the Kunduz hospital were killed and much of the
facility destroyed in the assault shortly after 2 a.m.
Saturday.
It blamed the strikes on the U.S. military, which maintains a
small presence in the country and has supported the Afghan army by
ground and air in Kunduz since Taliban insurgents stormed the city
last Monday.
The U.S. military said it conducted an airstrike in the vicinity
of the hospital at that time to protect American special-operations
forces on the ground who came under enemy fire. It acknowledged
that the medical facility may have been damaged.
But it was unclear exactly where the explosives were dropped and
for how long, military officials said.
"Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been
committed, MSF demands that a full and transparent investigation
into the event be conducted by an independent international body,"
Christopher Stokes, the group's general director, said Sunday.
"There can be no justification for this abhorrent attack on our
hospital."
Doctors Without Borders said that the hospital's main building
was hit with precision for more than an hour, even after it alerted
American and Afghan military officials. It said it had earlier
shared its exact location with officials in Kabul and
Washington.
"It was awful," said Lajos Zoltan Jecs, a nurse who survived the
strike. He said he saw the intensive care unit in flames, six of
its patients burning in their beds. Another patient lay dead on the
operating table surrounded by rubble. "Destroying a hospital and so
many lives, for nothing. I cannot find words for this."
Witnesses on Sunday said the hospital was mostly destroyed but
the neighborhood was otherwise largely unscathed.
Three separate investigations were launched into the airstrikes
on the hospital in Kunduz, officials said. The mission led by the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Afghanistan said it would
release the results of its preliminary investigation within days.
The U.S. and Afghan governments are conducting a joint
investigation, and the U.S. military is doing its own inquiry.
In the initial stages of the probes, some facts have become
clear, U.S. officials said, including that American
special-operations forces assisting Afghan commandos requested
assistance after coming under attack by the Taliban. An AC-130
gunship was deployed to the site, either dropping munitions or
firing automatic weapons in the vicinity of the hospital
complex.
Investigators are trying to establish whether the hospital was
mistakenly hit or whether the fire the special-operations forces
were receiving was so intense that the military decided to strike
Taliban fighters even if that meant hitting the hospital, said
allied officials. They are also investigating whether Taliban
fighters were on the premises of the hospital at the time, a U.S.
military official said.
American officials left open the possibility that Taliban
fighters, taking advantage of the situation, may have been
responsible for some of the explosions.
Investigators hadn't yet reached the reached the site because
the area wasn't secure, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said
Sunday.
"The situation there is confused and complicated so it may take
some time to get the facts, but we will get the facts. And we will
be full and transparent about sharing them."
Afghan security officials said they believe militants were
hiding inside the Doctors Without Borders compound when the attack
took place, making it a potential target as Afghan forces worked to
clear remaining militants from hiding places across the city.
Doctors Without Borders provides medical treatment to anyone who
needs it, including insurgents. But the organization denied there
were active fighters within the compound at the time of the attack.
"The gates of the hospital compound were closed all night so no one
who isn't staff, a patient or a caretaker was inside the hospital
when the bombing happened," a spokeswoman said.
Medical staff treated those who were severely wounded in the
bombing and then transferred patients to medical facilities in the
cities of Pul-e Khumri and Kabul.
By Saturday night, the hospital had closed and its foreign staff
had been removed from the city. Since fighting in Kunduz began last
week, the hospital treated nearly 400 people and was the only
advanced medical facility in Kunduz province.
The bombings repeatedly hit the main hospital building, while
the rest of the sprawling compound was mostly untouched, according
to Doctors Without Borders staff.
While Afghan troops have wrested back control from the Taliban
of most of central Kunduz and all key government buildings, they
are searching house-to-house for militants, said Kunduz police
spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini. Many insurgents have disguised
themselves in uniforms seized from government troops, complicating
the clearing operation.
On Sunday, there was sporadic fighting inside the city and
Afghan troops clashed with Taliban fighters on its outskirts.
A humanitarian crisis in the city is deepening. There are
shortages of medicine, food and water, residents said. The price of
a loaf of bread has increased tenfold to $2.50 since Monday. On
Sunday, Afghan forces began distributing food rations.
"The city is in a state of horror. Residents are too scared to
leave their homes," one resident said. "The city smells of
death."
Those who can are fleeing. A government employee on Saturday
rented a van for $250 and drove to Kabul with his family. "There
was heavy fighting in our neighborhood and there is no food to
eat," he said. "What was the point in staying?"
Julian E. Barnes and Gordon Lubold contributed to this
article.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 04, 2015 20:55 ET (00:55 GMT)
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