Nov. 05--As a U.S. warplane unleashed a series of devastating strikes on a hospital in Afghanistan, Doctors Without Borders representatives in Washington and Kabul made frantic attempts to get the bombing stopped.
At least 15 calls and text messages were exchanged with U.S., Afghan, United Nations and Red Cross officials. Nearly an hour into the attack, a American official in Afghanistan responded, "I'll do my best, praying for you all."
A log of the communications was included in a report on the Oct. 3 attack released Thursday by the medical aid group.
The report noted that a U.S. Defense Department official had asked Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, the day before the airstrikes whether a large number of Taliban militants were "holed up" in the hospital or at any other sites operated by the charity.
The question suggests that the military was receiving intelligence reports about the well-known trauma center in the city of Kunduz but did not arouse concern at the time.
"In a context of war or conflict, you have contacts with both sides," the group's general director, Christopher Stokes, told reporters in the Afghan capital.
An internal review by MSF confirmed that wounded Taliban fighters were among the patients treated at the facility, including two whom staff members concluded were of a higher rank. But the medical group's leaders maintain that was not a reason to bomb a fully functioning hospital with 105 patients and surgeries ongoing, the only one of its kind in northern Afghanistan.
"Wounded combatants are patients under international law, and must be free from attack and treated without discrimination," Stokes said. "Medical staff should never be punished or attacked for providing treatment to wounded combatants."
The review concluded that staff members were in full control of the hospital, that there were no armed combatants within the compound and no fighting in or near the trauma center before the airstrikes.
U.S. military officials in Washington and Afghanistan said Thursday that they had received copies of the findings and remained committed to establishing the facts of what transpired. The military, NATO and the Afghan government have launched investigations.
"We continue to work closely with MSF in identifying the victims, both those killed and wounded, so that we can conclude our investigations and proceed with follow-on actions to include condolence payments," said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. "We are also committed to working with MSF to determine the full extent of the damage to the hospital, so that it can be repaired in full."
MSF's findings are preliminary, but the group said it was releasing them to counter speculation and to be transparent about what took place. They are based on interviews with MSF employees, before and after pictures of the hospital, including satellite images, and emails and phone records.
The report reiterated assertions that U.S. forces had been given the precise coordinates of the hospital as recently as Sept. 29. As an additional precaution, staff members had placed two of the group's flags on the roof of the hospital, it said.
The attack lasted about an hour and destroyed the main hospital building, where medical personnel were taking advantage of the first quiet night since Taliban forces had seized control of Kunduz five days earlier to catch up on a backlog of surgeries.
Survivors described concentrated rounds of earth-shaking explosions that engulfed the building in flames.
"Patients burned in their beds, medical staff were decapitated and lost limbs, and others were shot by the circling AC-130 gunship while fleeing the burning building," MSF said.
Staff used an office desk as a makeshift operating table to try to save the life of a patient in a wheelchair who was hit by shrapnel as he tried to escape from the inpatient department. The man died on the table, the report said.
In all, 30 people were killed, including 13 staff members, 10 patients and seven others whose bodies were burned beyond recognition and have not yet been identified.
President Obama has apologized for the attack, which Gen. John F. Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said was a mistake.
In Washington, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday that the president had called for a "transparent, thorough and objective accounting of the facts and the circumstances that led to this tragic incident."
Campbell has appointed several senior officers outside his command to conduct the investigation, which Earnest said "will consider a series of potential human errors, failures of process, and technical malfunctions that may have contributed to the mistaken strike."
Officials at Doctors Without Border also want the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, a body set up under the Geneva Conventions, to look into the attack. That would require the assent of the U.S. and Afghanistan, which they have not provided.
Zavis reported from Los Angeles and Cloud from Washington.
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