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Patients burnt alive in US gunship attack on Kunduz hospital
HUGH TOMLINSON THE TIMES OCTOBER 05, 2015 11:38AM
U.S. Airstrike Hits Doctors Without Borders Hospital
The Doctors Without Borders hospital in flames after it was attacked by a US gunship.The Doctors Without Borders hospital in flames after it was attacked by a US gunship. Source: AP < PrevNext >
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Medical workers have described the horror of seeing patients burning alive in their hospital beds after a botched US air strike in the Afghan city of Kunduz, believed to have been carried out using one of the most feared weapons in the American arsenal.
An American AC-130 gunship, a converted Hercules cargo aircraft mounted with 40mm and 105mm cannons, was reportedly engaged over Kunduz at the time of the attack on a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in which 19 people died. President Obama has pledged a full investigation of the incident, which the United Nations has said could constitute a war crime.
“We went to look for survivors ... We tried to take a look into one of the burning buildings,” said Lajos Zoltan Jecs, an MSF nurse who was woken as the 30-minute attack began in the early hours of Saturday morning. “I cannot describe what was inside. There are no words for how terrible it was. In the intensive care unit, six patients were burning in their beds.”
MSF confirmed yesterday that 12 staff members were among the dead, hindering efforts to save the wounded patients. Medics were left operating on each other amid the chaos.
“Patients, wounded, crying out everywhere. It was crazy,” Mr Jecs said. “We had to organise a mass casualty plan in the office, seeing which doctors were alive and available to help.
“We did an urgent surgery for one of our doctors. Unfortunately he died there on the office table. We did our best but it wasn’t enough.” The attack continued after US and Afghan authorities were informed the hospital had been hit, with the aircraft circling overhead, still firing, said MSF which has now pulled out of Kunduz.
The attack occurred as Afghan forces backed by western air power tried to wrest control of Afghanistan’s fifth largest city back from the Taliban. Fighting continued in the city yesterday, days after the government claimed to have retaken it.
MSF has denied claims by Afghan security officials that Taliban fighters had been firing from within the hospital compound, using the site as a human shield. “The hospital gates were locked. Only staff, patients and caretakers were on-site. There were no fighters on the hospital premises,” MSF again insisted yesterday (Sunday).
The UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, called the incident “tragic, inexcusable and possibly even criminal”. The hospital was evacuated yesterday with patients moved to nearby cities or flown to Kabul. Afghan forces controlled most of Kunduz.
The Times