Doctors Without Borders quits Kunduz after US air strike
KABUL: The situation in the wartorn Afghan city of Kunduz became more precarious for residents caught between government troops and Taliban militants after the withdrawal Sunday of an aid group that was one of the last providers of medical services there.
The aid organization, Doctors Without Borders, said it was leaving Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, after a catastrophic airstrike on its hospital Saturday, which killed 22 people, including 12 staff members, and destroyed the intensive care unit.
The Pentagon, which has said it might have struck the hospital inadvertently during a military operation, said in a statement Sunday that a preliminary investigation of the episode would be completed in a matter of days. The Afghan government also vowed to investigate the airstrike.
A senior US defense official said Sunday that there was heavy gunfire in the area around the hospital at the time of the airstrikes, and that initial reports indicated that the Americans and Afghans on the ground near the hospital could not safely pull back without being dangerously exposed. U.S. forces on the ground then called for air support, senior officials said.
The closing of the hospital will leave not only Kunduz residents, but also many Afghans from neighboring districts and provinces, with scant medical care. It was the only free trauma care hospital in northern Afghanistan, according to Doctors Without Borders. The group said that in 2014 more than 22,000 patients received care at the hospital and more than 5,900 surgical procedures were performed.