Obama apologizes for deadly airstrike on hospital

President Obama has apologized to Doctors Without Borders for a U.S. airstrike that killed at least 22 people at its hospital in Kunduz last weekend.

The U.S. has come under mounting pressure from the charitable organization, which has described the attack as a war crime.

“This morning from the Oval Office, President Obama spoke by telephone with Doctors Without Borders International President Dr. Joanne Liu, to apologize and express his condolences for the MSF staff and patients who were killed and injured when a U.S. military airstrike mistakenly struck an MSF field hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan over the weekend,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at his Wednesday briefing.

{mosads}It is the first time the U.S. has offered an apology for the airstrike on Saturday, which killed 12 Doctors Without Borders staff members and 10 patients, including three children. The attack wounded 37 others.

U.S. officials initially described the incident as having “collateral damage,” and officials also appeared to at first blame Taliban forces or Afghan security, which the U.S. said had requested the airstrike. 

On Tuesday, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, testified to the Senate that the U.S. was responsible for the strike.

U.S. military officials say the strike was to help Afghan forces who were battling Taliban fighters in Kunduz, and reported being fired upon from the hospital.

The Taliban took over the city a week ago, and Afghan forces, with support from U.S. special operations forces, have been battling to take it back.

Earnest, however, reiterated that he didn’t believe the U.S. military had committed a war crime.

“There’s no evidence that I or anybody else has — that I’ve seen or that anybody else has presented that indicate that this was anything other than a terrible, tragic mistake,” he said.

Obama also called Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to express his condolences, Earnest said.

Obama underscored that he “looked forward to continuing to work closely with President Ghani and the broader Afghan Government to support their efforts to provide security for the Afghan people,” according to a readout of the call.

The airstrike occurred as the president nears a decision on the pace of the U.S. troop drawdown from Afghanistan. 

The president’s current plan is to drawdown the approximately 9,800 troops there to a presence of 1,000 at the U.S. embassy in Kabul by the end of next year, but he is reportedly considering leaving as many as 5,000 troops there after 2016.

Earnest said it was hard to tell whether the Kunduz bombing would have any effect on the president’s decision but said he would consider it as a factor.

However, he added that he would balance advice from Campbell with the U.S.’s broader interests.

“His advice and his input into this decision making process, while significant, is not the only factor in this decision,” Earnest said.

—Updated at 5:27 p.m.