https://void.cat/d/Y4GdPKJrPyVDQYJLWPw9KY.webp

The US bombed the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on this day in 2015. The US called it “collateral damage”, but the hospital was attacked for an hour with precision air strikes.

The trauma hospital, then the only kind in northeastern Afghanistan, provided high-quality, free surgical care to victims of all types of traumas, including government troops and Taliban fighters.

All war parties were repeatedly informed of the hospital’s location. During the airstrikes, all efforts by MSF staff to contact the US military were unsuccessful.

Having claimed that there were Taliban militias in the hospital, the US later described the attack as a “tragic mistake,” a mistake which was not uncommon for US attacks in Afghanistan.

Due to discrepancies between the US military account and eyewitness reports, MSF launched an independent investigation. It stated that the attack was conducted with the purpose to kill and destroy.

When fighting between the government and Taliban forces became more intense and shifted to northeastern Afghanistan, the hospital lost its ability to treat patients.

Eight years later, the need for trauma care in Kunduz is exceptionally high after the 20-year American war in Afghanistan. The US has refused to compensate the hospital.

#AfghanistanWar #Imperialism #WarCrime