Pentagon says it will pay compensation to Afghan hospital victims
The United States will pay compensation to those killed and injured last week by US airstrikes on a hospital in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, the Pentagon says.
On October 3, US fighter jets struck an Afghan hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international medical charity group based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The attack killed 12 medical staff members and at least 10 patients, three of them children, and injured at least 37 people, according to the medical aid organization. At least 33 people are still missing after the airstrikes.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook announced on Saturday that the US military will make "condolence payments" to the injured and the families of 22 people who lost their lives in the attack, but said that the amount of the payments has not been decided yet.
"If necessary and appropriate, the administration will seek additional authority from the Congress," Cook said.
Doctors Without Borders officials have blamed the United States, demanding an independent investigation into the incident and calling it a war crime.
"The Department of Defense believes it is important to address the consequences of the tragic incident," Cook said.
"One step the department can take is to make condolence payments to civilian non-combatants injured and the families of civilian non-combatants killed as a result of US military operations," he added.
Cook said US Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) would determine "appropriate payments" through discussions with those affected.
US Army General John Campbell, the commander in charge of the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan, claimed on October 5 that the attack was carried out at the request of Afghan forces.
The US military had said that American troops were under Taliban fire and had called in the strike. It termed the hospital as "collateral damage."
However, on October 6, Campbell acknowledged that the deadly US airstrike was a mistake made within the US military’s chain of command.
In a hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee in Congress, the general said he has called on his forces to undergo training to review rules of engagement to prevent similar incidents.
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