Hypocrisy! American airstrike in Afghanistan hits hospital, kills at least 50 doctors, patients and civilians

RT
Sat, 03 Oct 2015 07:55 UTC

© Doctors w/o Borders / Twitter

Medecins Sans Frontieres says it gave the coordinates of hospital hit by an airstrike to US forces several times.

A hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz has been hit and partially destroyed in an overnight "aerial attack" that killed at least nine Medecins Sans Frontieres staff. NATO has admitted a US airstrike may have caused accidental "collateral damage."

"Collateral damage":
RT news, 3 Oct, 2015:
US forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz at 2:15am on Saturday, said NATO coalition spokesman Colonel Brian Tribus. "The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility," he said. "This incident is under investigation."

"We are deeply shocked by the attack, the killing of our staff and patients and the heavy toll it has inflicted on healthcare in Kunduz," Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said in a statement.

Three MSF staff have been confirmed dead, while more than 30 are unaccounted for, according to the organization's official statement.

The US formally wrapped up its combat mission in Afghanistan at the end 2014, but some 10,000 US troops stay in the country. American forces are supposed to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2016. Talat Masood, a retired lieutenant-general of the Pakistan Army, thinks there's a good chance U.S. soldiers will end up staying for longer.

At the time that the "aerial attack" occurred there were over 80 personnel, both local and international, inside the building, treating over 105 patients. At least sixty people were killed and around 400 wounded in the fighting in Kunduz since Monday, the spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health, Wahidullah Mayar, wrote on his Twitter account. The government says 200 Taliban fighters were killed.

Dr Masood Nasim, who was leading the MSF medical team at trauma hospital in Kunduz, said on Thursday that his facility has been at the front line since the hostilities began on September 28.

MSF hospital aftermath #photos by Abd Qadir Wahedi pic.twitter.com/w6Y9NrqG0w— Aleem Agha (@Aghaaleem) October 3, 2015

"Early on Monday morning, I came to MSF's hospital here in Kunduz after hearing the sound of shells falling. By midday our hospital was on the frontline, with fighting right outside the gate. You could hear the sound of shelling, rockets and airplanes. Some bullets have come into the hospital, some even through the roof of the intensive care unit," Nasim said.

Adil Akbar, a doctor at the hospital who was on duty at the time, told AP that the operating theater, emergency room and other parts of the hospital complex had been struck in the bombing. "I managed to escape after attack but I know that most of the staff and even some of the patients are missing," he said.

Comment: Oh this is priceless. Amid all of the Western govt. and media lies about Russia "killing civilians" in Syria. NATO does this, not just to Afghan civilians, but to Western NGO workers!

When Russia allegedly does it, it's a tragedy trumpeted all over the news; when America repeatedly and provably does it, it's written off as collateral damage. Is there something wrong with this picture?

The people of Afghanistan are losing all the time in this conflict. The intervention of foreign forces destroyed the very fabric of the country, which needs to be built up again.

Even the BBC is reporting on it:

Medecins Sans Frontieres said the number of its staff killed had risen from three to nine.

It said the strikes continued for more than 30 minutes after US and Afghan authorities were told of its location.

US forces were carrying out air strikes at the time. The Nato alliance has admitted the clinic may have been hit.

At least 37 people were seriously injured, 19 of them MSF staff. At least 100 patients were in the hospital.

Many patients and staff remain unaccounted for, MSF says.

The organisation says that all parties to the conflict, including Kabul and Washington, had been told the precise GPS co-ordinates of the hospital in Kunduz on many occasions, including on 29 September.

After staff at the hospital became aware of the aerial bombardment in the early hours of Saturday morning, US and Afghan military officials were again informed, MSF said.