MSF calls for commission on Kunduz hospital attack

‘Independent inquiry needed’ before criminal charges considered over US air strike

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called on Wednesday for an independent international fact-finding commission to be established to investigate the deadly US bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

The medical charity, also known as Doctors without Borders, said that the commission, which can be set up at the request of a single state under the Geneva Convention, would gather facts and evidence from the United States, Nato and Afghanistan.

Only then would MSF decide whether to bring criminal charges for loss of life and damage, it said.

“If we let this go, we are basically giving a blank check to any countries at war,” MSF International president Joanne Liu told a news briefing in Geneva. “There is no commitment to an independent investigation yet.”

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The deadly air strike on Saturday, which killed 22 people, was a mistake made within the US chain of command, the American commander of international forces in Afghanistan said on Tuesday.

US army general John Campbell said US forces had responded to requests from Afghan forces and provided close air support as they engaged in a fight with Taliban militants in the provincial capital of Kunduz.

“To be clear, the decision to provide aerial fires was a US decision made within the US chain of command,” Mr Campbell said in testimony to the senate armed services committee.

“A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility,” he said.

Reuters