Thirty-three people are still unaccounted for five days after the deadly U.S. bombing of a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan, the medical charity organization said Thursday.
Guilhem Molinie, the charity organization’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters that 24 staff members and nine patients are still missing, NBC reported.
The organization said 22 people were killed, and 37 were injured in the airstrike on Saturday. More than 80 members of staff were inside the hospital at the time of the bombing.
Mr. Molinie told reporters that a hotline has been created to allow family members and relatives to call in with information about those still missing.
“At the moment we are trying to find trace of any of our staff but also any of our patients,” Mr. Molinie added. “We also know that we may find some other bodies inside the hospital, we are waiting for the possibility to access the hospital, or for people who have the capacity to do it, to help us to clarify these numbers.”
President Obama called the organization’s director on Wednesday to apologize for the airstrike in Kunduz, which the Pentagon admitted was a mistake.
Gen. John F. Campbell, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told lawmakers that the strike was called in by Afghan forces on the ground, who were fighting Taliban after the militant group successfully recaptured the major city, marking the first success for the group since the U.S. invasion.
Doctors Without Border has called the bombing a war crime and has urged an independent probe into the incident. The Pentagon is currently conducting its own investigation.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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