Initial Reaction to U.S. Military Investigation into Hospital Attack

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) issued the following statement today by Christopher Stokes, MSF general director, in response to the release of initial findings from a U.S. military investigation into the U.S. airstrike on MSF's hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on October 3:

"The U.S. version of events presented today leaves MSF with more questions than answers. It is shocking that an attack can be carried out when U.S. forces have neither eyes on a target nor access to a no-strike list, and have malfunctioning communications systems. It appears that 30 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of people are denied life-saving care in Kunduz simply because the MSF hospital was the closest large building to an open field and 'roughly matched' a description of an intended target.

"The frightening catalogue of errors outlined today illustrates gross negligence on the part of U.S. forces and violations of the rules of war. The destruction of a protected facility without verifying the target - in this case a functioning hospital full of medical staff and patients -- cannot only be dismissed as individual human error or breaches of the U.S. rules of engagement. MSF reiterates its call for an independent and impartial investigation into the attack on our hospital in Kunduz. Investigations of this incident cannot be left solely to parties to the conflict in Afghanistan."

This statement can be found online here. Further information previously released by MSF can be found online here.