Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) denied that Taliban fighters were firing from its hospital at Afghan and NATO forces before a suspected U.S. air strike killed at least 19 people in a battle to oust the insurgents from Kunduz.
Kunduz has been the scene of fierce fighting since the Taliban captured it almost a week ago. The aid group has said an air strike, probably carried out by U.S.-led coalition forces, killed 19 staff and patients on Saturday in a hospital it runs in Kunduz, leaving 37 wounded.
The U.S. military said it conducted an air strike "in the vicinity" of the hospital, as it targeted Taliban insurgents who were directly firing on U.S. military personnel.
The U.S. government promised a full investigation into the incident as the U.N. human rights chief said the bombing could amount to a war crime.
In a statement, President Barack Obama offered condolences to the victims of what he called "the tragic incident".
In Kabul, the Afghan Ministry of Defence said Taliban fighters had attacked the hospital and were using the building "as a human shield".
But the medical aid group denied this.
"The gates of the hospital compound were closed all night so no one that is not staff, a patient or a caretaker was inside the hospital when the bombing happened," MSF said in a statement on Sunday. "In any case, bombing a fully functioning hospital can never be justified."
Frantic MSF staff telephoned military officials at NATO in Kabul and Washington after the attack, but bombs continued to rain down for nearly an hour, one official of the group said.
The medical charity said it was pulling most of its staff out of the area because the hospital was no longer functioning. Some staff had gone to help treat the wounded at other hospitals, it added.
