An aerial attack carried out by U.S. forces may have partially damaged a Médecins Sans Frontières trauma center in the Afghan city of Kunduz in the early hours on Saturday. Around the same time of the U.S.-led attack, the international medical aid group MSF, commonly known as Doctors Without Borders, says a sustained bombing hit the building, leaving three medical staff dead and "more than 30 unaccounted for."
It is not yet known whether the strikes that hit the hospital were carried out by U.S. military or Afghan forces. U.S. Army Colonel Brian Tribus, a spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan released a statement:
"U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15 a.m. (local), 3 October, against individuals threatening the force. The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation."
In a statement, MSF says they are currently accounting for final casualty numbers:
"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," says Bart Janssens, MSF Director of Operations."
The attack comes six days after Taliban militants seized the city. MSF says that they have treated 394 wounded patients since fighting broke out on Monday, and that at the time of this morning's attack, 105 patients and their caretakers were in the hospital, along with more than 80 staff present.
MSF calls the hospital the "only facility of its kind" in Afghanistan's northeastern region, providing free trauma care, regardless of a "patient's ethnicity, religious beliefs or political affiliation."
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