The United States and Afghanistan are responsible for committing a war crime in the Afghan city of Kunduz, the international medical organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a statement Tuesday.
On Saturday, a hospital in Kunduz, accommodating some 200 people, was hit by an hour-long series of aerial bombing raids, injuring at least 37 and killing 22 people, including 12 MSF staff.
“Statements from the Afghanistan government have claimed that Taliban forces were using the hospital to fire on Coalition forces. These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital, which amounts to an admission of a war crime,” according to the statement.
The statement added that the attack could not be classified as a mistake because the hospital administration had regularly shared its coordinates with the authorities.
MSF also said that the attack on the hospital undermined the core principles of humanitarian work.
On September 28, Taliban militants seized the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, dislodging government forces from the city. After reinforcements arrived, the Afghan National Army, backed by US airstrikes, began an offensive operation to regain control of the city.
(Sputnik)
6/10/15
--
-
Related:
MSF 'disgust' at government hospital claims
UN chief slams deadly Afghan hospital airstrikes
Afghanistan: Kunduz hospital airstrikes ‘tragic and inexcusable,’ say UN officials
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
MSF Seeks Probe Into 'Unacceptable' Hospital Bombing ....
ReplyDeleteInternational medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is calling for an independent panel to conduct an investigation under the Geneva Convention after Saturday's bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan by U.S. forces.
"It is unacceptable that the bombing of a hospital and the killing of staff and patients can be dismissed as collateral damage or brushed aside as a mistake," MSF International President Joanne Liu told reporters Wednesday.
Her comments came a day after U.S. Army General John Campbell, who heads the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, told a congressional committee that U.S. forces were responsible for "mistakenly" hitting the hospital. The bombings killed 10 patients and 12 MSF staff members.
Liu said the facts of the attacks need to be investigated impartially and independently, and that MSF cannot rely on the internal probes promised by the U.S., Afghanistan and NATO.
MSF Switzerland General Director Bruno Jochum said the hospital was targeted "without doubt," with four or five strikes coming in less than an hour and none of the surrounding buildings being hit..............http://www.voanews.com/content/msf-seeks-probe-into-unacceptable-hospital-bombing/2994867.html
7/10/15