AFP, Washington :
The United States military took responsibility on Tuesday for a deadly air strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, calling it a mistake and vowing to hold people accountable.
Saturday’s strike on an Afghan hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), killed 22 people and deeply angered the medical charity. MSF officials have blamed the United States, demanding an independent investigation into an attack it called a war crime.
Defence Secretary Ash Carter said the Pentagon “deeply regrets” the loss of life.
“The United States military takes the greatest care in our operations to prevent the loss of innocent life, and when we make mistakes, we own up to them.
That’s exactly what we’re doing right now,” Carter, who was travelling in Europe, said in a statement.
“We will do everything we can to understand this tragic incident, learn from it, and hold people accountable as necessary,” he said.
Earlier in Washington, the American commander of international forces in Afghanistan, Army General John Campbell, called the strike a mistake made within the United States chain of command.
The comments by Ash Carter and John Campbell were the most direct acknowledgement yet by the United States government that the strike on the hospital was carried out by United States forces.
On Monday, Campbell said only that United States forces had responded to a request for support from Afghan forces.
In testmimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Campbell also made clear he favoured a rethink of a plan to withdraw almost all United States troops by the end of next year.
He said rising threats in Afghanistan from the Islamic State and al Qaeda were among factors informing his recommendations to the White House on future troop levels.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) called on Wednesday for an independent international fact-finding commission to be established to investigate the U.S. bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which it deems a war crime.
The medical charity 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.”
The U.S. military took responsibility on Tuesday for the air strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, that killed 22 people, calling it a mistake and vowing to bring the perpetrators to account.
The United States military took responsibility on Tuesday for a deadly air strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, calling it a mistake and vowing to hold people accountable.
Saturday’s strike on an Afghan hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), killed 22 people and deeply angered the medical charity. MSF officials have blamed the United States, demanding an independent investigation into an attack it called a war crime.
Defence Secretary Ash Carter said the Pentagon “deeply regrets” the loss of life.
“The United States military takes the greatest care in our operations to prevent the loss of innocent life, and when we make mistakes, we own up to them.
That’s exactly what we’re doing right now,” Carter, who was travelling in Europe, said in a statement.
“We will do everything we can to understand this tragic incident, learn from it, and hold people accountable as necessary,” he said.
Earlier in Washington, the American commander of international forces in Afghanistan, Army General John Campbell, called the strike a mistake made within the United States chain of command.
The comments by Ash Carter and John Campbell were the most direct acknowledgement yet by the United States government that the strike on the hospital was carried out by United States forces.
On Monday, Campbell said only that United States forces had responded to a request for support from Afghan forces.
In testmimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, John Campbell also made clear he favoured a rethink of a plan to withdraw almost all United States troops by the end of next year.
He said rising threats in Afghanistan from the Islamic State and al Qaeda were among factors informing his recommendations to the White House on future troop levels.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) called on Wednesday for an independent international fact-finding commission to be established to investigate the U.S. bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which it deems a war crime.
The medical charity 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.”
The U.S. military took responsibility on Tuesday for the air strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, that killed 22 people, calling it a mistake and vowing to bring the perpetrators to account.
