MSF demands explanation after US strike kills 19

International medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres has condemned the "horrific aerial bombing" by US forces of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in which at least 19 people died.

The US military on Saturday acknowledged it could have been responsible for an air strike that also injured 37 people.

MSF said all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan were clearly informed of the precise location, via GPS coordinates, of its facilities. It released a statement demanding a “full and transparent account” from the international coalition forces of its bombing activities over Kunduz on Saturday morning.

Frantic staff phoned military officials at Nato in Kabul and Washington as bombs rained on their hospital for nearly an hour, the aid group said.

Fighting has raged around the Afghan provincial capital this week, as government forces backed by American air power seek to drive out Taliban militants who seized the city in the biggest victory of their nearly 14-year insurgency.

US forces launched an air strike at 2.15am (21.45), the spokesman, Col Brian Tribus, said in a statement. “The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility,” he added. “This incident is under investigation.”

MSF staff called Nato officials in Kabul at 2.19am and military officials in Washington a few minutes later. The bombing continued until 3.13am, an MSF official said.

At least 12 MSF staff, four adult patients and three children died, the organisation said. It said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific aerial bombing of the hospital”.

A wall of the hospital's main building collapsed, scattering fragments of glass and wooden door frames, while three rooms were on fire, said Saad Mukhtar, director of public health in Kunduz. "Thick black smoke could be seen rising from some of the rooms," Mr Mukhtar said after a visit to the hospital.

“The fighting is still going on, so we had to leave.” MSF said it did not have complete details of casualties in the incident, at a time when almost 200 patients and employees were in the hospital, the only one in the region that can deal with major injuries.

"We are deeply shocked by the attack, the killing of our staff and patients and the heavy toll it has inflicted on healthcare in Kunduz," the aid group's operations director, Bart Janssens, said in a statement. Hospital staff were treating the injured, it added.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said US air strikes targeted the hospital and had killed patients, doctors and nurses.

None of its fighters was a patient in the hospital, the militant group said. The US military has unleashed several air strikes this week in support of government forces in the city, where Taliban fighters were still holding out against

Afghan troops on Friday. The hospital was on the frontline of the increasingly bloody conflict, with fighting outside its gates, its chief, Dr Masood Nasim, said this week.

The sound of shelling, rockets and fighter jets could be heard overhead, Nasim added, with stray bullets finding their way through the roof of its intensive care unit.

MSF said it had treated almost 400 patients in the 150-bed hospital since fighting broke out in Kunduz six days ago, most for gunshot wounds suffered in crossfire. So many patients have flooded the hospital that it has had to accommodate them in offices and mattresses on the floor.

Reuters