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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.
Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) 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 said. “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 combatants were present in the hospital.
The charity said despite frantic calls to American and Afghan military officials in Kabul and Washington, the attack continued for another 30 minutes, with the main hospital building housing the intensive care unit and emergency rooms being targeted.
“The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round,” said Heman Nagarathnam, MSF’s head of programmes in northern Afghanistan.
“There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames.
Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds.
In a statement released by the White House, US President Barack Obama offered his “deepest condolences” for what he called a “tragic incident”.
“The Department of Defense has launched a full investigation, and we will await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive judgement as to the circumstances of this tragedy,” Obama said.
NATO earlier conceded US forces may have been behind the bombing, after forces launched a strike they said was intended to target militants.
“The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation,” a NATO statement said.
The incident has renewed concerns about the use of US air strikes in Afghanistan, a deeply contentious issue in the 14-year campaign against Taliban insurgents.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called for a full and transparent probe, noting: “an air strike on a hospital may amount to a war crime”.
“This event is utterly tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal,” he said.
“‘Again and again”
MSF said some 105 patients and their caregivers, as well as more than 80 international and local MSF staff, were in the hospital, the only medical facility in the area that can deal with major injuries, at the time of the bombing.
The charity said Afghan and coalition forces were fully aware of the exact location of the hospital, having been given GPS co-ordinates of a facility it said had been providing care for four years.
“This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law,” said MSF President Meinie Nicolai.
“We demand total transparency from Coalition forces. We cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as ‘collateral damage’.”
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.
The Taliban seized on the incident, saying “barbaric American forces… carried out deliberate air strikes on a civilian hospital”.
In a statement, it denied any of its fighters were being treated at the MSF clinic “because the prevailing military situation of Kunduz would not allow us to admit our patients to the said hospital”.
The Islamists’ offensive in Kunduz marks 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.
They were condemning Russia for this the day before and continue to..what the fcuk do America think they are that they are?
Absolutely scandalous behaviour
International Criminal Court would do a better job if the belligerent US recognize it
Indeed pronnsias, and can you just imagine him jumping up and down with moral outrage if the Russians did this in Syria during the week also the blanket 24/7 coverage such a scenario would have recieved but because the US did this its a brief mention and move along.
He also promised to close Guantanamo.
The United States of Hypocracy
An investigation will be done and excuses will be made and next week it will all be forgotten about.
An investigation by the international war crimes tribunal is required, not an internal whitewash. This was a sustained bombardment of a HOSPITAL for over an hour. Everyone involved knew full well the hospital gps co-ordinates. This was murder of the sick and injured incinerated on their beds along with their dedicated doctors, nurses and ancillary staff pure and simple and as so a war crime.
The phrase ‘collateral damage’ should be banned. They should be made call it like it is – civilian casualties.
Luckily that term is being phased out in media.
Well said Conor and another phrase that needs to be dropped by the media is ‘security contractors’. What they are in fact are just ‘mercenaries’.
or just murder..
Water off a duck’s back to Obama.
America fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan but openly supporting ISIS and their affiliates in Syria when there isn’t much difference between the two. As well, can anyone tell the difference between ISIS fighters the Taliban and the leaders of the Gulf states because form where I’m sitting all these behave the same when it comes to women’s rights and chopping heads off.
Patrick I predicted this in a post here yesterday when I posed the question – at what point do we get the old reliable,- they were being used as human shields. Didn’t have to wait too long.
No mention on any media of the terrorist attack in sydney yesterday . Strange it isn’t all over the media , what has changed I wonder .
More than likely it was just another false flag like the last one.
Cry wolf comes to mind and more so when it doesn’t get a mention in the media.
Meanwhile in America they are recruiting for another false flag shooting to take place in Texas on 8th November 2015.
If you are living in Texas keep out of the Woodlands Mall where ever that is on that date.
http://www.mctxoem.org/external/content/document/1945/2596390/1/JASE%20Volunteer%20Call%20Out.pdf
Obama and a noble prize surely not.
@HIll bicks, the meeja just will not mention anything to do with terrorism from the RoP “Seven News said Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar was at a talk given by Hizb ut-Tahrir at nearby Parramatta Mosque just hours before he donned a black robe and killed finance worker Curtis Cheng outside NSW Police headquarters in Parramatta.”
Like this doesn’t happen on a regular basis.
It happens all the time.
If its not them its their proxy “head hacking terrorists organisations that do it.
Israel bombed 17 hospitals in Gaza 2014 and the yanks restocked their entire hell fire missile supply a month later.
lol. so the s.c.u.mbag war machine murderers are going to investigate themselves? great. the death penalty is too good for them.
I’m trying to fathom why a hospital was intentionally targeted for prolonged bombardment, although repeated warnings were give that it was a hospital which was being targeted.
I have sent a letter of protest to the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland. That kisses goodbye to any chance of a visitors tourist visa to the U.S.
Well done Tony.
Tony, I echo TheAudioBoyz comment in saying well done to you. You might be safer anyway by not putting your life in danger by visiting that country especially when we see the atrocities the Americans are capable of carrying out on each other and anyone who gets in the way.
Other than the fact that a French charity MSF was involved we would have never hear about this incident.Hundred of thousands have died in the US air strikes and military action in Afghanistan and Iraq and the media has turned a blind eye unless westerns were killed. The same has happened on the use of Shannon as a US transit military hub.
The American people should demand the geo political roll back of the imperialist that inhabit their government and military along with the financial jihadists that controls their financial system because democracy has been substituted for war weapons central banking domination of the peoples of areas that dont necessarily want what they have to offer which at the minute looks like a right feckin mess without structure consideration or policy. Just plough on destabilising the peace of the planet for money and bragging rights in the billionaire boys clubs .
What are the chances of legal accountability for this massacre of civilians?
Reflecting on the repeated calls that the hospital was being bombed, the GPS codes having been provided and the prolonged can nature of the bombardment, the logical inference, in the absence of mistake, is that there was a high level of suspicion of a person or persons in the hospital who were targets. The staff and the patients were knowingly sacrificed for a military objective. This was not collateral damage, this was intentional sacrifice of humanitarian workers and patients.
It seems that all modern wars are waged without decency or mercy.
There was a time when such killings would be described as murder. Now, it’s nonsense phrases such “misdirected target” and “collateral damage”.
M. Your original text was pure BS that I didn’t red thumb, I treated it with the contempt it deserved and moved on, however as you keep pressing the issue go to youtube look up my Lai massacre for a well documented account that debunks your theory and hopefully come back and withdraw your remark.
When its ISIS committing sick war crimes its branded as evil and nazi like. When its the yanks the language is totally different , even from media who are condemning it.
Use of words like “investigation”,”tragic incident”, etc.
If you were to think about something like bloody Sunday where it is blatantly obvious what a great recruitment tool that was for the IRA and then think about the crimes USA have committed in the middle east for the past decade and a half ,it doesn’t take a rocket science to see why some muslim extremists despise the west and its supporters so much they are willing to blow themselves up for their religious cause.
So..heres the big white elephant in the room:
If that hospital was blown up by some stereotyped ‘insurgent’ with a bomb strapped to himself, for instance , he would be called a ‘Terrorist’ and his action called an Act of ‘Terrorism’ by the Mainstream Media and powers that be!?! Agreed on that yes?
So…what is the difference between that and this horrific action by US Forces, perhaps even worse given the warnings and yet sustained targetting!?
Is this not an ‘act of terror’ and just who are the real ‘terrorists’ these days!?
Appauling attack on this hospital. But just to play devils advocate, and feed my kinky red thumb fetish please give your honest thoughts on the following statement. Is it accurate?
“America or Israel wouldnt kill any non combatants if they could avoid it. Their oppostistion has absolutely no such scruples”.
People who red thumbed, do you think the statement is incorrect? Im not being feceicious, give your thoughts please.
As expected.
Yes it does kill non combatants like the time they bombed the Al Jazeera Baghdad Bureau in 2003 and when they bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 on both occasions their aim was to kill journalists which is what they did unless M thinks journalists are fair game
They clearly do, and have. But they would rather not. Do you understand they significance of that vs their enemies? Imagine how futile it would be for the west to use human shields as a deterent? Its futulity for the west and its effectiveness for their enemies reoresents clearly the gulf of morality between the opposing forces.
Sorry phone typos :/
Oh really, here is a very graphic video of US troops killing a wounded Iraqi civilian and then they cheer and celebrate it. M, you can find plenty more of this kind of uncivilised behaviour carried out by US troops if you want to educate yourself on how they delight in killing, perhaps have a look at the torture films they mae in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere
M….if you could show me CLEAR and DECISIVE and ACTUAL evidence of that opinion, I would be open minded enough to review it!!!
As it stands, all the evidence, including this latest murder, points to the opposite!
What happened the enquiry , btw, into the IDF’s murder of those 3 little children playing football on the beach in Gazza , btw???
If you think that is an intelligent retort, I really dont know how to address you. You can point to bad actors on any side of any conflict. Im very cleary talking about he aims of the forces/regimes as a whole. Surely somebody out there can see through the fog .
Nigel o’Neill do you think that the Israel would actually want to murder those children on the beach? That was their intent? Hamas explicitly sates that they would like to kill every Israeli.. and wpuld if they could. Is that not true. If not then I stand corrected.
M…I dont think anything..I am just putting to you the facts that they were targeted and murdered
And I am putting it toyouthat the Israeli regime expresses no will to kill palestinian children. And that Hamas expressly wishes to kill all Israelis of which Israeli children area subset.
Do you contest that?
Poor M, defending the in defensible which makes you as bad as those blood thirsty IDF and US military sick killers.
Go and get your head examined as you are clearly not well
You reort to insults because you do not want to face the facts.
The term ‘pledge an investigation’ is erroneous. They pledged to assist Palestine after the last Israeli onslaught. Nothing came of that. Are we ever going to see the outcome of this investigation and whom will carry it out? No detail in his statement. Just empty rhetoric.
From the BBC
—”The Afghan interior ministry said a group of 10 to 15 militants were hiding in the hospital.
“They are killed, all of the terrorists were killed, but we also lost doctors,” ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said.
The Taliban denied that any of its fighters were there.—”
They would wouldn’t they…….
Patrick, MSF also denied there were any Taliban fighters in the hospital, will you now tell us they have a reason to lie on behalf of the Taliban.
Either way you trying to justify the unjustifiable shows what en evil creep you are.
Kook tiger; take a second to think and stop lashing out at your percieved opposition. Think honestly.
Attacking a hospital under any circumstances is a war crime. Anyone who tries to justify this attack needs to have their head examined.
I dont see anybody trying to justify it here. Just some people trying to understand what happened, and most people gleefully using it to claim America is only delighted to kill non combatants.
Yes it does kill non combatants like the time they bombed the Al Jazeera Baghdad Bureau in 2003 and when they bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 on both occasions their aim was to kill journalists which is what they did, there are many other cases but you M can educate yourself by running a search.
Patrick defending the bombing of hospitals just like you do when Israel does the same . Would you sing the same tune if Putin did the same I wonder .
patrick. CNN : Israeli forces called in the airstrike in hospital In Afghanistan. see how easy it is to talk shiite patrick.
Patrick, I think a unit of the Real IRA from South Armagh did the damage. Try the BBC with that one.
Even if there were any combatants hiding in the hospital, a claim denied by MSF, this does not justify the intentional liquidation of a hospital, the patients and the humanitarian staff. This massacre was a breach of the Geneva Convention. It was morally and legally wrong. The defenders of this appalling barbarity are without compassion or sense of right and wrong.
even if there was so-called terrorists in there, it does not give you a right to bomb a hospital…..it cannot and will not be justified !!
Goodmorning Patrick. Since yesterday’s headline “As many as 20 people killed in alleged US airstrike, including MSF workers” you have been acting the maggot defending the slaughter of innocence. I think Joe Travers may be right in what he said yesterday. You seem to have handlers in Tel Aviv. Doctors, Nurses, Men, Woman and children have been murdered by bombs Patrick. It doesnt matter if it’s the Americans, Russians or Eskimo’s. NO country should be allowed to carry out such atrocities. Human life is precious to me my friend and anyone who tries to justify the slaughter of it needs a mental diagnoses.
And your point is Patrick?????????????
Thats it…100% plain and simple fact!
Why when the U.S. and Israel do it its okay? Two very dangerous foreign policies without accountability
Please think harder,just try. Nobody is trying to justify it!
This is how you creat more enemies and help keep the war going on for longer. The USA may have lost less lives in Middle East due to modern war fair. But they fail at winning yet again. This is a war they can’t win.
have your say