KABUL // Nineteen people were killed and dozens seriously injured on Saturday when US air strikes hit a hospital run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the Afghan city of Kunduz.
MSF staff contacted military officials in Washington and at Nato in Kabul as soon as the attack began but the strikes continued for nearly an hour.
Almost 200 patients and staff were in the hospital, the only one in the region that can deal with major injuries, MSF said. The hospital has been running “beyond capacity” during fighting in which the Taliban seized control of the northern provincial capital for several days.
Nato admitted that US warplanes attacked Kunduz city at the same time as the hospital trauma centre was bombed, and said the strike “may have resulted in collateral damage”. An investigation is under way.
The Afghan defence ministry said armed terrorists had been using the hospital building as a base to target Afghan forces and civilians.
MSF said it gave the location of the hospital to both Afghan and US forces several times in the past few months, most recently this week, to avoid being caught in crossfire.
“All parties to the conflict, including in Kabul and Washington, were clearly informed,” operations director Bart Janssens said. “We are deeply shocked by the attack, the killing of our staff and patients and the heavy toll it has inflicted on health care in Kunduz.”
“We do not yet have the final casualty figures, but our medical team are providing first aid and treating the injured patients. We urge all parties to respect the safety of health facilities and staff,” Mr Janssens said.
The strike in the early hours of Saturday morning left the building engulfed in flames, and one wall collapsed, scattering fragments of glass and wooden door frames. Thick black smoke rose from the debris.
The blackened building was filled with the smell of burning flesh and some bodies were charred beyond recognition, said Qiamudeen, 31, a shopkeeper whose neighbour was killed in the strike.
“I was shocked, emotional and in tears when I reached the hospital,” he said.
Another resident was anxiously trying to contact six friends, all doctors and nurses at MSF. “I don’t have any news from them and they may have been killed,” he said.
He said many people were too afraid to leave their homes to check on relatives because of sporadic firefights between troops and Taliban militants.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the strike was “an appalling tragedy”.
“Such attacks against health workers and facilities undermine the capacity of humanitarian organisations to assist the Afghan people at a time when they most urgently need it.”
Kunduz is facing a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire between government forces and insurgents. At least 60 people are known to have died and 400 wounded in recent fighting.
As violence spreads in neighbouring Badakhshan, Takhar and Baghlan provinces, concerns are mounting that the seizure of Kunduz was merely the opening gambit in a new, bolder Taliban strategy to tighten the insurgency’s grip across northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s offensive in Kunduz, their biggest tactical success since 2001, is a major blow for Afghanistan’s western-trained forces.
US-led Nato forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan last December, though a 13,000-strong force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.
* Agence France-Presse and Reuters
