Doctors Without Borders Describes Accidental U.S. Bombing of Afghan Hospital as 'War Crime'
The United States has confirmed that Afghan citizens were accidentally killed in an airstrike targeting Taliban fighters over the weekend.
The Doctors Without Borders aid group has decried an airstrike that killed 12 medical workers and 10 patients at an Afghan hospital in Kunduz on Saturday.
Gen. John Campbell, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, offered his "deepest condolences" to those affected by the airstrike.
The hospital was reportedly accidentally hit after Afghan forces called for United States backup in striking a Taliban stronghold in Kunduz.
"We have now learned that on October 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces," Campbell said in a statement. "An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat, and several innocent civilians were accidentally struck."
The Doctors Without Borders aid group, also known as Medecins san Frontieres, said in a statement that until further knowledge is gathered, it will be viewing this weekend's incident as a "war crime."
"Under the rules of international humanitarian law, a hospital is a hospital and the people inside are patients -- to target a medical facility in this way is a violation of that, whatever the circumstances," Vickie Hawkins, executive director of the UK branch for Doctors Without Borders, told Public Radio International.
"The statements that have been coming out of the Afghan government in the past 24 hours would lead us to believe that there was some kind of intent behind the attack. We can only presume, on this basis, that that constitutes a war crime."
