Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) yesterday denied that Taliban fighters were firing from its hospital at Afghan and NATO forces before a suspected US air strike killed at least 19 people in a battle to oust the Islamist insurgents from an Afghan city.
The northern city of Kunduz has been the scene of fierce fighting since the Taliban captured it almost a week ago. Afghan security forces fought their way into Kunduz four days ago, but battles continue in many places.
The aid group said an air strike, probably carried out by US-led coalition forces, killed 19 staff and patients on Saturday in a hospital it runs in Kunduz, leaving 37 wounded.
Photo: AFP
The US military said it conducted an air strike “in the vicinity” of the hospital, as it targeted Taliban insurgents who were directly firing on US military personnel.
The US government promised a full investigation into the incident as the UN human rights chief said the bombing could amount to a war crime.
In Kabul, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said Taliban fighters had attacked the hospital and were using the building “as a human shield,” but MSF denied this.
“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,” MSF said in a statement yesterday.
Witnesses said patients were burned alive in the crowded hospital after the airstrike in the early hours of Saturday. Among the dead were three children who were being treated.
Frantic MSF staff telephoned military officials at NATO in Kabul and Washington after the attack, but bombs continued to rain down for nearly an hour, one MSF official said.
Taliban fighters in Kunduz were still holding out against Afghan troops yesterday, despite government claims to have taken control of the area.
“Our understanding is that the whole area is still contested,” said a coalition military official in Kabul, who asked not to be named.
Kunduz resident Gulboddin, who only has one name, said corpses are lying in the streets and people are too afraid to leave their homes.
“You can hear the sound of gun fire all over the city,” Gulboddin said. “Some of the bodies are decomposing.”
Public health official Sayed Mukhtar said hospitals are running out of medicine and struggling to treat the growing numbers of patients.
“There is no electricity and hospital laboratories are not working,” Mukhtar said. “This city is no longer for living.”
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