Witnesses Recall Horrific Kunduz Hospital Airstrikes "Patients Were Burning In Their Beds"

"Seeing their colleagues and patients die was a horrifying shock, according to survivors of the deadly air raid on a hospital in Afghanistan. The tragedy, medical staff said, simply cannot be dismissed as “collateral damage” from a botched airstrike.

Recalling the tense minutes of continuous airstrikes which hit the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, NGO staff said that the destruction of the hospital is nothing short of a “grave violation of international humanitarian law.”

The aerial bombing raids took place between 2:08am and 3:15am local time and were carried out at approximately 15 minute intervals, with the main hospital building being “repeatedly hit very precisely” during each raid, MSF said. The tragedy happened despite the fact that MSF had provided the US-led command with the GPS coordinates of the hospital to make sure that the hospital would not be hit.

When the bombing stopped, some of the survivors left their shelters looking for those who could possibly have remained alive. Others, in a panic, tried to escape to safety, as the main hospital building was engulfed in flames.

“We tried to take a look into one of the burning buildings. I cannot describe what was inside. There are no words for how terrible it was,” Zoltan said.

“In the intensive care unit six patients were burning in their beds,” he added.

The charity has confirmed 19 deaths, 12 of whom were staff. Four were adult patients, along with three children. A further 37 were left wounded. At the time of the bombing, 105 patients, and more than 80 MSF international and national staff were in the hospital."

Read More: [link to www.rt.com]