International medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said Saturday that at least 12 staff members and at least seven patients, including three children, were killed in airstrikes on its Kunduz hospital in Northern Afghanistan.
MSF condemned the horrific bombing on its hospital "in the strongest possible terms" in a statement and said that the air attack was a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law.
The organization also said that all parties, including Afghan forces and U.S.-led coalition forces, were informed of the precise location with GPS coordinates of the Kunduz hospital.
MSF's emergency trauma hospital in Kunduz was hit by airstrikes, probably carried out by U.S.-led coalition forces, on Oct. 3.
"This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law," Meinie Nicolai, MSF President, said in a previous statement. "We demand total transparency from Coalition forces. We cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as collateral damage," Nicolai said.
President Barack Obama described the airstrikes as a "tragic incident," saying that the Department of Defense has initiated a probe into the matter.
"The Department of Defense has launched a full investigation, and we will await the results of that injury before making a definitive judgement as to the circumstances of this tragedy," Obama said in a brief statement, according to RT.
The U.S. military admitted earlier on Saturday that they conducted an airstrike in the vicinity of a MSF hospital in Kunduz province, as HNGN previously reported. More than 80 staff were present at the hospital when the attack occurred.
