The head of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders says the latest U.S. explanation of an airstrike in Afghanistan over the weekend does nothing to absolve the United States of blame.
The top commander of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan said today that Afghan forces who reported being under Taliban fire had requested the U.S. airstrike, which killed 22 people at a medical clinic.
Initially, a U.S. statement had said the strike had been launched because U.S. forces were threatened. Gen. John Campbell now says the attack wasn’t sought by American forces.
The clinic was operated by Doctors Without Borders. And the group’s general director points out that the U.S. has admitted it attacked the facility — and he adds that the U.S. military is "responsible for the targets it hits." Christopher Stokes says, "There can be no justification for this horrible attack."
Stokes says there have been "constant discrepancies" in U.S. and Afghan accounts of what led to the airstrikes — making it even "more critical" that there be a "full transparent independent investigation."
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