MSF Response to Spurious Claims That Kunduz Hospital Was "A Taliban Base"

Following an earlier statement Sunday morning reiterating MSF's call for an independent investigation of the bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, MSF General Director Christopher Stokes released this additional statement on Sunday, in response to claims from Afghan officials that MSF's hospital in Kunduz was routinely used by the Taliban for military purposes: 

"MSF is disgusted by the recent statements coming from some Afghanistan government authorities justifying the attack on its hospital in Kunduz. These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital with more than 180 staff and patients inside because they claim that members of the Taliban were present. 

This amounts to an admission of a war crime. This utterly contradicts the initial attempts of the US government to minimize the attack as 'collateral damage.'

There can be no justification for this abhorrent attack on our hospital that resulted in the deaths of MSF staff as they worked and patients as they lay in their beds. MSF reiterates its demand for a full transparent and independent international investigation."