US President Barack Obama has pledged a full investigation into an apparent US air strike on an Afghan hospital that killed 19 people, in a bombing the UN said could amount to a war crime.
Doctors Without Borders said patients burned to death in their beds during a bombing raid that continued for half an hour after US and Afghan authorities were informed the hospital had been hit.
“Twelve staff members and at least seven patients, including three children, were killed; 37 people were injured,” the charity stated. “This attack constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law.”
The air raid came days after Taliban fighters seized control of the strategic northern city of Kunduz, in their most spectacular victory since being booted from power by a US-led coalition in 2001.
Afghan forces, backed up by their NATO allies, claimed to have wrestled back control of the city.
But the defence ministry in Kabul said “a group of armed terrorists… were using the hospital building as a position to target Afghan forces and civilians”.
MSF has denied any fighters were present in the hospital.