Obama apologizes to Doctors Without Borders for U.S. bombing of hospital

President Obama called Doctors Without Borders to apologize for the U.S. bombing of its hospital in Afghanistan and promised changes to procedures if necessary, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

The apology came hours after the medical aid group called for an independent investigation of the attack under the terms of the Geneva Conventions. Doctors Without Borders has condemned the airstrike on the hospital in Kunduz as a possible "war crime."

Earnest disputed claims the airstrike amounted to a war crime, saying there is no evidence "that this was anything other than a terrible, tragic mistake."

At least 22 people were killed in Saturday's airstrike, which the U.S. said was a mistake made during fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban, which took control of the city for three days last week.

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"The president offered up his personal apology," Earnest said. Obama told the organization that an ongoing Pentagon investigation would "provide a transparent, thorough and objective accounting of the facts and circumstances of the incident," he added.

Joanne Liu, Doctors Without Borders' international president, said the organization received Obama's apology. "However, we reiterate our ask that the U.S. government consent to an independent investigation led by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to establish what happened in Kunduz, how it happened, and why it happened," she said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, Liu said the strike “was not just an attack on our hospital, it was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated.”

The group said its call for an independent fact-finding mission would mark the first time such a probe would be commissioned under the conventions, which spell out the rules for international warfare.

Liu said the organization is “working on the assumption of a possible war crime” but said its real goal is to establish facts about the incident and the chain of command, in order to clear up the rules of operation for all humanitarian organizations that operate in conflict zones, the Associated Press reported.

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“The U.S. attack on the (Doctors Without Borders) hospital in Kunduz was the biggest loss of life for our organization in an airstrike,” she said in a statement. “Tens of thousands of people in Kunduz can no longer receive medical care now when they need it most. Today we say: enough. Even war has rules.”

Doctors Without Borders has appealed to 76 countries that signed Article 90 of the additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions, seeking to activate a 15-member commission of independent experts that was set up in 1991.

The United States and Afghanistan — which are not signatories — would have to give their consent. Article 90 spells out the procedure for setting up such a commission.

Doctors Without Borders said it has had no response yet from the United States or any other countries. The organization's legal director , Francoise Saulnier, acknowledged that such a measure would require the “good will” of countries, the AP reported.

Obama also called Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to discuss the incident and pledged to keep working closely with his government, Earnest said.

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Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told a Senate committee in Washington on Tuesday that he is requiring every U.S. servicemember in Afghanistan be retrained on "operational authorities and rules of engagement" in which U.S. firepower can be used, to prevent such incidents in the future.

Campbell said that although Afghan forces requested U.S. air power, final responsibility was with U.S. forces.

He said Afghan forces fighting to retake Kunduz from the Taliban had requested U.S. air power, and that a U.S. special operations unit in the “close vicinity” was communicating with the crew of the heavily armed AC-130 gunship that pummeled the hospital.

“To be clear, the decision to provide (airstrikes) was a U.S. decision, made within the U.S. chain of command,” Campbell said. “The hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.”