MSF calls for investigation of Kundoz airstrike

Medical charity Médecins sans Frontières demanded an international probe into a deadly US air strike on an Afghan hospital, after reports said NATO’s top regional commander thought American forces broke their own rules of engagement.

MSF said it did not trust internal military inquiries into the bombing during the fight to retake the city that a U.S. airstrike destroyed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders on Saturday, killing at least 22 people.

The international charity called for a fact-finding mission to determine whether the strike violated the Geneva Conventions.

The investigation would be a first step, aimed to establish facts about the incident and the chain of command that led to the strike, MSF said. Only then would it decide whether to bring criminal charges for loss of life and damage.

The Geneva conventions are a set of treaties regarding humanitarian issues of civilians and combatants in wartime.

“We cannot rely on an internal military investigation,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) chief Joanne Liu told reporters in Geneva, insisting that an “international humanitarian fact-finding commission” should probe the bombing.

“This was not just an attack on our hospital, it was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated,” Liu said.

Taliban fighters seized control of Kunduz city, capital of the province of the same name, for three days last week. After sealing the city and mining roads, they looted and burned government buildings and businesses, and harassed journalists and human rights workers.

The airstrike on the hospital was among the worst and most visible cases of civilian deaths caused by US forces during the 14-year war that Barack Obama declared all but over. It killed 12 MSF staff as well as 10 patients who had sought medical treatment after the Taliban overran Kunduz last weekend.

Three children died in the airstrike, which came in multiple waves and burned patients alive in their beds.

This comes as the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said Tuesday that the strike was a mistake, and investigations are underway.