KABUL: Afghan forces asked for a US airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz that killed 22 people, the top NATO commander in the country said Monday, after medical charity MSF branded the incident a war crime.

General John Campbell’s statement marks a departure from previous US military claims that the strike was carried out Saturday to protect American special forces who came under enemy fire in the northern Afghan city.

His remarks are unlikely to assuage global outrage over claims by MSF that the hospital was repeatedly bombarded for more than an hour despite their frantic calls to military officials in Kabul and Washington.

“We have now learned that on Oct. 3, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from US air forces,” Campbell told reporters.

“An airstrike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck.”

There was no immediate reaction from Afghan officials but they have previously claimed that insurgents were using the hospital as a position to target soldiers and civilians.

Campbell’s statement comes after pressure mounted on Washington to come clean over the strike, which caused patients to be burned to death in their beds and reduced the hospital to smoldering rubble.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Sunday it has closed the trauma center, seen as a lifeline in a war-battered region with scant medical care, and demanded an independent probe into the devastating air raid.

“Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, MSF demands that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent international body,” MSF general director Christopher Stokes said.




Stokes also hit out at claims by Afghan officials that militants were inside the hospital.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter expressed sadness over the “tragic loss of life” and repeated President Barack Obama’s promise of a full and transparent investigation.

However MSF’s Stokes stressed the need for an independent probe, saying “an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient.”