Is it open season on hospitals?
A Saudi-led coalition airstrike has hit a Médecins sans Frontières hospital in Yemen, the latest bombing of a civilian target in the seven-month air campaign in the country.
“Our hospital in the Heedan district of Saada governorate was hit several times. Fortunately, the first hit damaged the operations theatre while it was empty and the staff were busy with people in the emergency room. They just had time to run off as another missile hit the maternity ward,” MSF country director Hassan Boucenine told Reuters.
“It could be a mistake, but the fact of the matter is it’s a war crime. There’s no reason to target a hospital. We provided [the coalition] with all of our GPS coordinates about two weeks ago,” he said. At least two staff members were hurt by flying debris, according to Boucenine.
M
SF Kunduz Hospital hit in Afghanistan
The spillover from the militant assault, which had overwhelmed local security forces, was an unsettling sign at the lightly guarded civilian facility, where doctors and nurses were tending to a crush of patients.
It was also a foreshadowing of a far greater calamity that would descend on the hospital four days later when, in the early hours of Oct. 3, nearby U.S. combat advisers authorized a gunship to unleash a powerful attack. The AC-130U plane, circling above in the dark, raked the medical compound with bursts of cannon fire, potentially even using high explosive incendiary munitions, for more than an hour. The assault left at least 22 people dead, some of them burned to death.
In Syria
The city of Sarmin has endured attacks from chemical weapons and barrel bombs during Syria’s four-year civil war, but doctors said the hospital is its most dangerous place.
On Tuesday, bombs struck it for the eleventh time, shattering the walls and killing twelve civilians. Yet this attack was different, witnesses said, coming not from the regime as before but from its ally, Russia.
Whatever your feeling about this.....
Whether you feel that this is mere collateral damage and hospitals shouldn't get in the way during a war.
Or you feel that Hospitals are a protected area and bombing them is a crime, which is more in line with International conventions.
There needs to be independent investigations and if necessary new conventions drawn up which adequately protect hospitals, their staff and patients.
Blowing smoke and pointing fingers is not enough of an excuse, an "oopsey" and maybe even a "sorry" totally inadequate.
I wonder what is taking the MSF Kunduz investigation so long? Finding an adequate excuse?
The NATO investigation has so far made the amazing discovery that
“The Combined Civilian Casualty Assessment Team determined that the reports of civilian casualties were credible, and we continue to work with the government of Afghanistan to fully identify the victims,” said Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, Resolute Support spokesman in a statement released Saturday. Shoffner said the team is continuing with its casualty investigation.
The US investigation has got to this point
Meanwhile General John Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has upgraded the more comprehensive investigation the incident by naming a two-star general and two one-star generals, from outside his command, to take over the investigation.
The statement said Campbell had made the change "to ensure the U.S. national investigation is conducted in an independent and unbiased manner."
I have a totally different understanding as what "independent" means apparently.
The Afghan Governments investigation has pretty much just blamed the Taliban or Pakistan or someone else.