KUNDUZ: A full and transparent investigation has been demanded for ‘tragic, inexcusable and criminal’ US attack on a hospital that killed 19 people and injured 39 others in Kunduz city of Afghanistan.
US forces were carrying out air strikes at the time.
‘The air strikes were tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal,’ the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said and demanded a full and transparent investigation into the attack.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said at least 12 of its staff and seven patients were killed.
At least 37 people were seriously injured, 19 of them MSF staff.
“All indications currently point to the bombing being carried out by international Coalition forces,” MSF said.
The Nato alliance has admitted its forces may have hit the hospital.
US President Barack Obama expressed his “deepest condolences” for the deaths in a White House statement. But he said he would wait until the US defence department had conducted its own investigation before making a definitive judgement on the incident.
UN High Commissioner Zeid earlier said: ‘International and Afghan military planners have an obligation to respect and protect civilians at all times, and medical facilities and personnel are the object of a special protection.
‘These obligations apply no matter whose air force is involved, and irrespective of the location.’
