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Brussels Bombing? At last U.S. Admission of guilt over the Killing of 47 People at a Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz Last Year
While the world’s attention zeroed in on the attacks in Brussels, the U.S. made a stunning [but quiet] admission of responsibility for an attack of its own last year in Afghanistan: the deadly bombing of a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) hospital in Kunduz.
“As commander,” said Gen. John W. Nicholson, who now commands U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, “I wanted to come to Kunduz personally and stand before the families, and the people of Kunduz, to deeply apologize for the events.”
Those “events” comprised a bombardment via airstrike on the hospital on October 3, 2015 — and left 42 people dead and 37 injured.
“I grieve with you for your loss and suffering,” Nicholson added, “and humbly and respectfully ask for your forgiveness.”
His apology might ring hollow to many, considering circumstances surrounding the bombing, as well as what could be deemed an attempt by the U.S. to cover its tracks in the days and weeks that followed. What eventually emerged were terrifying accounts from witnesses on the scene which included reports of the U.S. shooting at people as they fled the hospital.
MSF issued many statements following the attack — one described the bombing:
“A series of multiple, precise and sustained airstrikes targeted the main hospital building, leaving the rest of the buildings in the MSF compound comparatively untouched. This specific building of the hospital correlates exactly with the GPS coordinates provided to the parties of the conflict (GPS coordinates were taken directly in front of the main hospital building that was hit with the airstrikes).”
MSF’s mission is to provide needed medical care to anyone situated in a conflict area, regardless of their affiliation — but no weapons of any kind are allowed inside their facilities. Also, GPS coordinates are taken and given to all parties involved in fighting so those facilities aren’t accidentally bombed. In the case of Kunduz, this had been done shortly before the bombs hit.
To MSF and international observers, this meant the bombing wasn’t accidental, as the U.S. finally conceded — particularly in light of another statement from workers who had been on the scene:
“Many staff describe people being shot, most likely from the plane [circling overhead], as people tried to flee the main hospital building that was being hit with each airstrike. Some accounts mention shooting that appear[ed] to follow the movement of people on the run.”
