A U.S. military team rammed the gate to the destroyed Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan, further heightening tensions between the aid group and the U.S. military.
The U.S. troops were traveling in an Afghan-owned tracked vehicle to the site of the hospital in Kunduz on Thursday to assess the structural integrity of the building and decide if it could be rebuilt, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters on Monday.
The U.S. service members had not contacted Doctors Without Borders about the visit to the hospital and believed there were no personnel in the structure, so they drove into the gate with the vehicle to force it open, Davis said.
There were, however, Doctors Without Borders personnel inside the hospital who were “understandably not happy” with the U.S. destruction of more of their property, Davis said.
“They did it, they shouldn’t have, they should have coordinated ahead of time and they’re going to make it right,” he said.
The U.S. is working with the medical aid group to repair damage to the gate, Davis said.
Media reports last week suggested a U.S. tank forced the gate open, but Davis said there are no U.S. tanks remaining in the country.
An American AC-130 gunship destroyed the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz this month, killing 22 medical staff and patients, including three children. The strikes were called in to protect Afghan troops under enemy fire during a recent wave of violence as the Taliban tried to seize parts of the city, the Pentagon said.
Doctors Without Borders said they provided the GPS coordinates of the hospital to American and Afghan officials and have called the U.S. strikes on the hospital a war crime. The group launched an online petition last week to conduct an independent investigation that has already collected more than 200,000 signatures.
“Respect for the laws of war is what protects our staff and patients in conflict zones throughout the world,” Jason Cone, executive director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement. “There must be an independent and impartial investigation to establish the facts of this horrific attack on our hospital.”
The Pentagon is expected to release a preliminary report this week, formally determining if there were civilian casualties in the bombing that were caused by the U.S. A more in-depth report to determine who specifically was at fault will not be completed for a couple weeks, Davis said.
While the report will formally hold the U.S. responsible for the strikes, government officials have already made public comments accepting blame for the airstrikes, including President Obama calling Joanne Liu, the leader of Doctors Without Borders, to apologize for the mistake.
