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U.S. airstrike kills 19 civilians in Afghan hospital

Posted October. 05, 2015 07:18,   

한국어

At around 02:10 a.m. on Saturday (local time), a heavily-armed American bomber appeared over Afghanistan’s 6th largest city of Kunduz. Causing flash in the nighttime sky, the aerial bombardment repeated for about 30-45 minutes.

The bombing was focused on the main building of trauma center, a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres, (MSF) including an intensive care unit where critical patients were being treated. The airstrike burned seven bed-ridden patients to death, three of whom were children.

Some 12 doctors and nurses who had been taking care of dozens of patients without sleeping very early morning on Saturday died at the scene. It has been reported that some 37 people including 19 medical staff were injured in blood. It is likely that the death toll would only increase due to large number of seriously injured casualties.

“This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law,” said Meinie Nicolai, MSF President. The command of the U.S.-led coalition admitted its airstrike to the hospital. “Having been reported that the U.S. Army who was giving advice to the Afghan government was attacked by Taliban rebels, we were carrying out the air strike,” sources form the U.S. Army said.

It’s not known whether the Taliban rebels were in the neighborhood of the affected hospital when the aerial bombing took place or the U.S. Army mistook the hospital as military establishments.

Since Sept. 28 when Taliban seized control of Kunduz, Washington, who was supposed to withdraw all of its armed forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, has increased its fighters and special forces.

“Taliban fighters had been pouring into the facility in recent days seeking treatment for gunshot wounds and other injuries” reported the Washington Post. “The hospital was attacked as the Taliban had its command office inside the hospital,” said the Afghan police to the newspaper. The hospital management said it had repeatedly informed the U.S.-led coalition of the facility’s accurate GPS coordinates over the past few months and the location information was delivered to the coalition three days ago. The MSF revealed that there were some 105 patients along with their families and some 80 medical staff of MSF.

“The Department of Defense has launched a full investigation,” said President Obama and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. “Hospitals and medical personnel are explicitly protected under international humanitarian law,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s press office said in a statement. This is not the first time that the U.S. armed force attacked Afghan civilians. Some 35 innocent civilians were killed in 2002 when the U.S. army bombarded a wedding hall in Urozgan Province. In 2009, some 74 people died from truck bombing in Kunduz.



kyle@donga.com