Monday morning commentary by a high-ranking military officer on a weekend US airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan lends credence to its victims’ claims that the act was almost certainly intentional and, therefore, a war crime.
Gen. John Campbell, the commander of the US/NATO-led effort in Afghanistan noted that the strike on the Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres-MSF) facility in Kunduz was called in by Afghan partners on the ground.
“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 US forces,” he said. “An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck.”
“The Taliban have purposefully chosen to fight from within a heavily urbanized area, purposefully placing civilians in harm’s way,” Campbell also remarked.
Campbell’s remarks bolster claims made by Afghan partners that the clinic was targeted. On Sunday, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said that “Taliban fighters had attacked the hospital and were using the building ‘as a human shield,’” according to NBC News. A second anonymous source told the news conglomerate that “a large group of Taliban had taken position inside the hospital which was bombed by coalition forces, at least 15 enemy were killed in the hospital.”
Twenty-two civilians, including MSF staff have thus far died from the airstrike.
Claims that Taliban were in the building were met with furious criticism by MSF staff, who noted that civilian facilities—schools, places of worship—are protected from attack under international rules of war, even if enemy combatants are present.
“These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital – with more than 180 staff and patients inside – because they claim that members of the Taliban were present,” the group said in a statement.
“This amounts to an admission of a war crime. This utterly contradicts the initial attempts of the US government to minimise the attack as ‘collateral damage,’” the Paris-based charity added.
The organization noted from its Twitter account that “not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US air strike on Saturday morning.”
“The gates of the hospital compound were closed all night so no one that is not staff, a patient or a caretaker was inside the hospital when the bombing happened,” it also said.
Since the attack, MSF has announced that it is pulling out of Afghanistan.
Saturday’s airstrike was the second time this year that the now-former MSF facility in Kunduz had been at the center of war crimes allegations against the Afghan government. In July, Kabul dispatched special forces to raid the clinic grounds after believing that an al-Qaeda operative was being treated there.
“This incident demonstrates a serious lack of respect for the medical mission, which is safeguarded under international humanitarian law,” the group said in a statement at the time of the incident.
On the heels of the hospital attack, the Pentagon has launched an investigation. NATO and the Afghan governments are conducting their own inquiries into the airstrike as well.
For that reason, Gen. Campbell did not have much to say on Monday morning. He declined to answer many reporters’ questions, noting the existence of the internal inquiry.
According to reports, the US air assault lasted more than an hour. MSF claimed that last week it provided GPS coordinates of the hospital to coalition forces and the Afghan government—both military and civilian branches.
Campbell was asked about some of those claims, but declined to answer in light of the ongoing inquiry.
“Those are some of things that will be asked in the investigation,” he responded.
MSF has demanded a fully independent probe.
