By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ASHLEY SOUTHALL
Doctors Without Borders said Sunday that it was withdrawing from Kunduz, a day after its hospital there was hit by what appeared to be an American airstrike, leaving the remaining residents in the embattled northern Afghan city even more vulnerable.
The aid organization also raised the death toll in Saturday’s airstrike on the hospital, saying that three more patients had died, raising the total fatalities to 22 — 10 patients and 12 staff members. The charity has said that at least three of the dead patients were children, and that 37 people were wounded in the attack.
“No medical activities are possible now in the M.S.F. hospital in Kunduz, at a time when the medical needs are immense,” said Tim Shenk, a spokesman for the organization in New York.
The charity, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières, or M.S.F., called on its Twitter feed for an independent investigation, “under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed.”
“Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US airstrike on Saturday morning,” it said. “The hospital was repeatedly & precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.”
The Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday that an investigation of the episode under the auspices of the NATO military headquarters in Afghanistan would be completed in a matter of days. The United States military has also opened “a formal investigation to conduct a thorough and comprehensive inquiry,” it said in the statement. The Afghan government has also vowed to investigate the airstrike.
The Pentagon said the strike was targeting insurgents who were firing on American service members advising and assisting Afghan security forces in Kunduz. It acknowledged that the strike was conducted “in the vicinity” of the hospital.
Residents walking around the city and reached by phone said they saw bodies from the fighting lying in the street.
The city was taken by the Taliban almost a week ago, and despite a counterattack by the Afghan Security Forces that began on Thursday, there has been only limited progress. However, the government forces are currently fighting the Taliban in the city, a considerable advance from last week when they were pinned down at the airport.
It was difficult to corroborate any reports because electricity was limited in the city and people were having trouble recharging their phones, especially if they lacked generators.
Several residents reported by phone that for several hours Sunday, government forces managed to raise their flag in one of the main squares, but that several hours later the Taliban had retaken it.
“The situation is very, very bad, so bad that one can not imagine it,” said Fazel Ahmad, a resident who said there had been 25 families on his street, but now he and one other family were the only ones left.
No comments:
Post a Comment