Defense Dept. to Make Payments After Strike on Doctors Without Borders Hospital

According to Doctors Without Borders, the hospital was free of fighters and fighting before the attack. Doctors Without Borders has frequently operated in conflict areas and has procedure in place to ensure safety, including notifying warring parties of their location. Over the span of half an hour, the hospital was struck multiple times.

Calls have been made for the global Criminal Court to investigate the airstrike on the hospital that killed 12 staff and 10 patients.

A nurse who was in the hospital described a horrific scene, with intensive care patients “burning in their beds”.

In a press release from the White House, US President Barack Obama stated that an investigation had been launched by the Department of Defense. This can not be tolerated.

The MSF hospital in Kunduz has been partially destroyed and is no longer operational. Now thousands of Afghans in the northern part of the country are without a trauma center.

US Army General John Campbell, the commander in charge of the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan, claimed on October 5 that the attack was carried out at the request of Afghan forces.

Currently, an internal inquiry is being conducted by the USA military and Afghani officials. There can be no excuse, the hospital was well known and was not a legitimate target. However, MSF has repeatedly said that the us military was aware of the hospital’s Global Positioning System coordinates.

Initial reports said Afghan forces called for the air support from the us because they were taking enemy fire from the Taliban. But if they don’t have the will to fight, or have divided loyalties, it doesn’t do much good. The group said probes under way by the USA, Afghanistan and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation were insufficient, and it suggested that the attack amounted to a war crime.

“In this case, there was a mistake and it’s one that the USA owns up to”, Earnest said. However, both the USA and Afghanistan would need to agree to the investigation.

The MSF started working in Afghanistan in 1980. This is the same Central Intelligence Agency organizing the US financed mercenaries in Syria today in a very similar set of circumstances. The USA government has changed its statement regarding the strike for four times before acknowledging it as a mistake. The War on Terror has exhausted itself, and the USA needs to find a way to leave the region completely.