Bombardment of the MSF clinic in Kunduz

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Attack site (Afghanistan)
Attack site
Attack site
Situation map, Afghanistan

In the early hours of the morning of October 3, 2015, 30 people were killed, including 13 employees of Doctors Without Borders, in the bombing of MSF clinic in Kunduz by a series of targeted air strikes on the main building of the clinic by a US armed forces plane in northern Afghanistan Limits and 10 patients. Three of them were children. 37 people were injured, some seriously. Two weeks later there was still no trace of nine patients.

The main building of the traumatology clinic was destroyed in the US air raids , the hospital has not been in operation since then and the organization Doctors Without Borders withdrew from Kunduz. According to Doctors Without Borders, also known internationally in French as Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF), “tens of thousands of people in a city that had been devastated by weeks of fighting had no access to medical and surgical emergency aid”.

The American Forces investigation stated that the attack should not have happened because relatives did not comply with the rules of engagement. Several family members have been suspended from their duties. The investigation called the attack " tragic and avoidable accident caused by human error ".

General situation

War situation

Long before this incident, the combat operations of the Bundeswehr and NATO in Afghanistan ended; the Kunduz field camp and the Kunduz region were given regional security responsibility on October 6, 2013. (For the broader scope of the acts of war, see also: War in Afghanistan since 2001. )

The US administration under Barack Obama had planned to withdraw all American soldiers from Afghanistan by the end of Obama's term in office (for more general information on the role of the US there, see: US participation in the war in Afghanistan ). However, General John F. Campbell in February 2015 called for "greater flexibility" in withdrawal.

In a surprise attack on the morning of September 28, 2015 , the Taliban stormed and captured the city of Kunduz . According to the Afghan government, large parts of the city were recaptured in the next few days by Afghan special forces, supported by US air strikes. Der Spiegel reported that this counter-offensive started quickly, but was very slow at first.

The German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said that NATO should not make its decisions on the further deployment of troops according to "rigid timelines", but according to the current security situation. According to the Washington Post on October 6, 2015, President Obama examined the possibility of postponing or giving up the planned full withdrawal. On October 15, he announced the government's intention to keep thousands of US troops in Afghanistan until 2017.

The clinic

Location of the MSF Trauma Center in Kunduz.

The clinic was an institution that was financed exclusively from donations. There everyone was treated according to medical requirements and regardless of origin, religion or political connections. Fighters with weapons were not allowed into the clinic. From the start of the offensive on September 29 until the clinic was destroyed, according to MSF, 345 injured people were treated there, including 59 children. Most of the cases were gunshot wounds. 89 patients were admitted in critical condition. The clinic was a specialized surgical clinic; Due to the lack of functionality of the provincial hospital, it was the only facility in the city of Kunduz where acute trauma cases could be treated. In the days before the air raid, she had reached the limit of her capacity.

The purpose of the clinic, which was established in 2011, was "to provide high quality free medical and surgical care for people with injuries from traffic accidents and war wounds from bomb explosions and gunshot wounds". In 2014, over 22,000 patients were treated there and more than 5,900 surgical interventions were performed; in the first half of 2015 there were 13,442 patients and 3,378 operations. Most of the patients came from Kunduz, but many also came from neighboring provinces, some even from remote Herat .

In July 2015, there had already been another incident in the clinic: At that time, heavily armed soldiers from the Afghan special forces broke into the clinic, shot in the air, attacked three employees of the organization and then entered the hospital, where they were armed arrested three patients until they left the compound about an hour later. In the meantime, one of the staff trying to maintain medical care for the patients was threatened with a weapon by two of the invading soldiers. In response to the threat, the aid organization had temporarily suspended its activities in Kunduz and announced: “We have urgently asked the Afghan Defense Minister and the Interior Minister to meet in order to receive official assurances that our medical work will be respected and that such incidents will no longer occur comes. "

In the week the clinic was hit by the air strike, it had 400 Afghan and 10 international staff. Due to the large number of injuries, many of the employees worked continuously for several days at that time. On the Thursday before the attack, on October 1st, the head of the medical team reported: “We are in the middle of the fighting. Nevertheless, our hospital and the employees are respected. So far we can do our work unhindered. "

course

The attack took place on the night of Saturday, October 3, 2015 and, according to MSF, lasted from 2:08 a.m. to 3:15 a.m. local time. According to later information from the US military, Afghan security forces had requested an attack on the clinic as air support. The air raids at Garani and Kunduz in 2009 were also carried out on request.

An investigation into the incident by the New York Times in May 2016 showed that although the clinic's staff had banned combatants with weapons from entering the hospital, they had left their radios, the emissions of which were detected by Afghan special forces using sensors in the building concluded that the Taliban would lead their units out of the hospital in the battle for the city. Finally, in the course of the fighting for the city, when an airstrike was requested on a building near the hospital, there were disagreements about the coordinates. The crew of the attacking aircraft requested a description of the building to be attacked from the ground troops. The hospital was described by ANA units. The AC-130 crew recognized the building described through their cameras and began the attack with the on-board guns at 2.30 a.m. The building was one of the few illuminated buildings in the city and was in an exposed, distinctive location. The roof was freshly marked on Friday with two red-and-white flags from Doctors Without Borders, but it was not marked with symbols from the Red Cross or Red Crescent organizations.

After the first bombing at 2:08 a.m., the project management in Kunduz immediately phoned the headquarters in Kabul, which in turn informed the NATO headquarters in Kabul and the Pentagon in Washington and asked them to stop the attacks immediately. Even so, bombings continued every ten to fifteen minutes. Overall, the clinic was approached and fired at five times in the course of more than an hour until 3.15 a.m. During this time there were 105 patients and 80 medical staff in the clinic. Because of the fighting in Kunduz, many employees had not been able to go home and stayed in the hospital.

Crew of an AC-130 of the 4th Special Operations Squadron loading the 105mm cannon in the foreground and the 40mm cannon in the background.

The attack was carried out by a basic AC-130 attack aircraft belonging to the 4th Special Operations Squadron of the US Air Force . Since these large machines fly very low to attack, they are mostly used at night to reduce the risk of being shot down and are equipped with night vision devices. The crew, usually twelve men on board, shoots on sight, which means that the shooters must have their sights on the target. The armament consists of a 25 mm gun , a 40 mm gun and a 105 mm howitzer . Be fired, among other Sprengbrand- and splinters explosive grenades .

From the clinic, which was located in an extensive facility, the main building in the center, in which the most important parts of the clinic, the intensive care unit, the emergency room and the physiotherapy department were located, were exclusively and specifically attacked. The surrounding buildings were not attacked and remained undamaged.

It was initially reported that 19 people were killed in the attacks. There are twelve employees of the clinic and seven patients, including three children. In addition, another 37 people - 19 Doctors Without Borders employees and 18 patients or relatives - were injured, some seriously. The victims are in all cases Afghans. Three international aid workers who were in the clinic during the attack survived. The day after the incident, agencies reported 22 deaths. The number of patients killed had increased by three to ten. Two other doctors were later pronounced dead.

The MSF had given all parties the exact coordinates of all the clinic's buildings several times in the past few months , most recently on September 29th. Such an approach is common to protect civil facilities such as hospitals. Survivors reported that several patients were burned alive in their beds.

Doctors Without Borders reported that surviving workers continued to care for the injured in an annex as well as in another hospital. Doctors in shock tried to help those who had treatable injuries and performed emergency surgery.

Reactions

Doctors Without Borders

MSF President Melanie Nicolai said it was a heinous attack and a grave violation of international humanitarian law . Taking up the term used in a first statement by a US military spokesman, she declared it unacceptable to dismiss this great loss of life as " collateral damage ". MSF called for an independent investigation at the international level.

The day after the attack, MSF announced its withdrawal from Kunduz. MSF is withdrawing from the city for the time being, as the clinic is no longer usable; It is still unclear whether the trauma center will reopen later. A few days later the United Nations announced that all humanitarian organizations had meanwhile left Kunduz.

On October 5, MSF issued a statement: “Today the US government admitted that it was their air strike that hit our Kunduz hospital, killing 22 patients and MSF staff. Your description of the attack is constantly changing - from collateral damage, to a tragic incident, to the current attempt to shift responsibility to the Afghan government. ”-“ One thing is certain, it was the USA that dropped the bombs. The US attacked a huge hospital full of wounded patients and MSF workers. The US military remains responsible for the targets it attacks, even if it is part of a coalition. ”-“ There can be no justification for this horrific attack. The constant discrepancies between US and Afghan statements on what has happened make the need for a fully transparent, independent investigation ever clearer. "

At the beginning of November, MSF presented the results of their internal investigation report and again requested that the incident be clarified.

In January 2016, MSF International President Joanne Liu pointed out that four MSF medical facilities in Yemen ( bombing of Haydan hospital / Sa'da province , bombing of Al Houban clinic in Taizz and attack on the Shiara hospital / province Sa'da ) and in Afghanistan (Kunduz) were attacked and demanded a "guarantee of all warring parties that functioning hospitals will never be a legitimate target".

U.N.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sharply condemned the airstrike and called for a "thorough and independent investigation" to determine who was responsible. On the same day, Obama, as US President and Supreme Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces, offered his condolences to the victims and announced an investigation.

UN Special Envoy for Afghanistan Nicholas Haysom said hospitals that house patients and medical staff should never be targeted. In this context, he mentioned that the use of medical facilities for military purposes is prohibited by international humanitarian law.

UNHCHR Human Rights Commissioner Seid al-Hussein called the incident "criminal". If a court finds that the attack was deliberate, "an air raid on a hospital could be a war crime ."

The World Health Organization called for compliance with international law at the end of October, referring to the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz and the attacks on the clinic in Sa'da in northern Yemen on October 26, 2015 . In a joint statement with ICRC President Peter Maurer on October 31, 2015, Ban Ki-moon warned that civilians were increasingly becoming victims of systemic disregard for international law . He referred to these incidents in Kunduz and Sa'da and warned that people could see the deliberate bombing of civilians, targeted measures against humanitarian and medical personnel, and attacks on schools, hospitals and places of worship as inevitable consequences of the conflict.

United States

The US embassy called it a "tragic incident". A full investigation into the incident has begun.

The bombing was a mistake, the aim was to target the Taliban and not a hospital, said General John F. Campbell , commander of both NATO's Resolute Support mission and the US forces in Afghanistan (USFOR-A).

The US government spokesman Josh Earnest said on October 5, 2015: "There is no country in the world that is making more efforts than the US to avoid civilian deaths, and no country is more important about this issue."

In military circles and among Western diplomats in Kabul, it was said that on Saturday night the US Air Force fired several grenades from an AC-130 aircraft at a group of around 10 to 15 Taliban fighters. The clinic was not hit directly by the grenades, but possibly by fragments flying around .

The US military initially announced that it had carried out an air strike near the hospital targeting Taliban fighters who had shot at members of the US military. Campbell later stated at a press conference that the operation was not requested by the US military, but by Afghan forces that were under fire. When questioned by the US Senate Armed Forces Committee, he later confirmed this statement, but at the same time admitted errors and stated that the decision had been made in the US chain of command.

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said on October 6, during a trip to Europe, that the Pentagon deeply regrets the loss of life. On October 7th, Obama spoke to MSF President Joanne Liu on the phone. He apologized and expressed his condolences on behalf of the staff and patients who were killed and injured. He also spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and expressed his condolences on the deaths of innocent people.

A week after the incident, US Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook announced payments to the victims and offered money to rebuild the clinic.

Speaking of a 3,000-page investigation report in November, Campbell said the attack was directly related to human error, compounded by errors in procedures and equipment, and that those involved had been suspended from their duties. In January 2016, media reported that Campbell had forwarded the investigation report, along with his recommendations for disciplinary action against the troops involved, to the US Central Command and that steps were being taken to punish those responsible. It has not been announced whether the investigation report will be made public.

Afghanistan

The spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry , Sedik Sedikki, said at a press conference on October 3 in Kabul that at the time of the attack, 10 to 15 “terrorists” were hiding in the clinic: “All terrorists were killed, but we also lost doctors. “80 employees in the hospital, including 15 foreigners, were brought to safety.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense raised allegations that the Taliban had misused the clinic as a " protective shield ". Médecins Sans Frontières then stated that the gates to the site were all locked at night, so that at the time of the attack no one except staff and patients was in the clinic, and that a wounded fighter was also a non-fighting civilian under international humanitarian law . (For the status of wounded fighters under international law, see also: hors de combat .)

Shortly after the attack, Afghan security forces declared that Taliban fighters had set up their command center in the clinic and that it was therefore the right thing to fight against it. On Monday, the US military announced that Afghan security forces had requested the attack for air support.

Taliban

Taliban spokesman Sabiullah Mujahid said that there were no militia fighters among the dead and missing. According to him, members of the Afghan army gave the Americans the wrong attack coordinates.

Further comments

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described itself as deeply shocked by the incident and more generally condemned such violence against patients and against medical staff and facilities. The ICRC's Health Care in Danger Project documented a total of 2,398 incidents of violence against patients, medical staff or facilities in eleven countries between 2012 and 2014.

The largest association of US-based non-governmental organizations, InterAction , called for a full and independent investigation into the incident in order to prevent future occurrences of a similar nature.

The organization Physicians for Human Rights sent a letter to US President Obama in January requesting the timely publication of the Department of Defense's investigation report in order to make a clear commitment to the principles of international law, including the protection of medical facilities and medical personnel, as well as its establishment an investigative court.

Subsequent events

International Humanitarian Investigation Commission

MSF's request for an independent investigation was - at least initially - unsuccessful. The request relates to the establishment of an International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC). That would mean that an investigation would not be left to internal military investigations by the US and NATO alone. The formation of such a committee of inquiry has been part of the Geneva Conventions since 1991 , but has never been practiced until now. 76 countries have ratified it, but neither the US nor Afghanistan are among them. In order to initiate an investigation, at least one of the 76 signatory states would have to apply - this is about establishing the facts, not about criminal consequences.

When US President Barack Obama called Joanne Liu , President of the MSF, on 7 October , she asked for his consent to send independent international investigators to an IHFFC, but the US President ignored it. His reference remains the in-house investigation of the US Department of Defense . As a justification, both Kabul and Washington point out, among other things, that three different investigations into the bombing have already started. However, all three investigations are in the hands of actors active in the war zone: the Pentagon, NATO and the US or Afghan military.

In mid-October, the organization Doctors Without Borders was informed that the International Humanitarian Investigative Commission (IHFFC) had been activated. The IHFFC still needs the approval of the United States and Afghanistan to proceed. On October 16, MSF petitioned President Obama to consent to the investigation.

In an exclusive interview with Deutsche Welle on October 14, the NATO commander in chief and four-star general of the US Air Force, Philip Breedlove , declared his support for an IHFFC in accordance with the Geneva conventions, as required by the organization Doctors Without Borders. Breedlove said it was their absolute right to request such an investigation, "and we will support that."

Entry of a US military vehicle into the premises

On Friday, October 15, at around 1:30 p.m. local time , an armored US military vehicle broke through the gate, apparently unaware that any of the MSF teams were on the site that day. The vehicle occupants were members of a joint US-NATO-Afghan investigation team. MSF stated that the unannounced and violent entry destroyed property and potential evidence, causing stress and anxiety. The intrusion also contradicts a previous agreement between MSF and the joint investigation team, according to which the aid organization would be informed before any action concerning its personnel or property. The insurgents had already withdrawn from Kunduz on October 13th.

consequences

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times , the US military imposed disciplinary measures on 16 members of the armed forces in April 2016. One officer has been suspended and the others are said to undergo " counseling and training ".

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

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  79. ↑ US military imposes fines for attacking clinic in Kunduz

Coordinates: 36 ° 43 '4.4 "  N , 68 ° 51' 43.1"  E