--- title: Doctors Without Borders: White House Seeks Answers on Kunduz description: President Obama thinks investigations by the Pentagon, NATO and Afghan forces will provide answers on why an Afghan hospital was bombed. canonical: https://time.com/4061569/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike-white-house/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-05T17:29:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T01:06:04.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Seeks Answers on Afghan Hospital Bombing og:description: But does not seek an independent investigation. og:url: https://time.com/4061569/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ef6bca2ae5f1443/698866e2bc6cfc2ee63d9c1c/doctors-without-borders-kunduz.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Victims of the U.S. Airstrike on Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz, receive treatment at the Mazar-e-Sharif Regional Hospital in Balkh, Afghanistan on October 04, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Seeks Answers on Afghan Hospital Bombing twitter:description: But does not seek an independent investigation. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ef6bca2ae5f1443/698866e2bc6cfc2ee63d9c1c/doctors-without-borders-kunduz.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Seeks Answers on Afghan Hospital Bombing > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Updated: Dec 14, 2023 1:06 AM UTCPublished: Oct 5, 2015 5:29 PM UTC  Victims of the U.S. Airstrike on Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz, receive treatment at the Mazar-e-Sharif Regional Hospital in Balkh, Afghanistan on October 04, 2015. Victims of the U.S. Airstrike on Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz, receive treatment at the Mazar-e-Sharif Regional Hospital in Balkh, Afghanistan on October 04, 2015.Anadolu Agency—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Updated: Dec 14, 2023 1:06 AM UTCPublished: Oct 5, 2015 5:29 PM UTC President Obama thinks investigations by the Pentagon, NATO and Afghan security forces will provide answers on why an Afghan hospital was bombarded Saturday, but he does not think an independent investigation is necessary, the White House said Monday. At the daily press briefing Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Obama is confident that the three investigations will provide a “full accounting” of how a facility staffed by Doctors Without Borders was bombed. “The scale of this tragedy is significant enough that it demands a full investigation,” he said. The Kunduz hospital was struck Saturday, killing 12 staffers and at least 10 patients, including three children, [according to a statement from Doctors Without Borders](http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/afghanistan-msf-demands-explanations-after-deadly-airstrikes-hit-hospital-kunduz). Gen. John F. Campbell [said Monday](http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/621848/department-of-defense-press-briefing-by-gen-campbell-in-the-pentagon-briefing-r) that Afghan forces called for U.S. airstrikes after reporting they were taking fire from the area. According to Earnest, Brigadier General Richard Kim is leading the Pentagon investigation, which is underway, while NATO plans its own investigation. U.S. military personnel will cary out a third investigation in concert with Afghan security forces. Pressed again by a reporter on the need for an independent investigation, Earnest repeated that the White House has “confidence” that the current investigations will provide “full accounting.” Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, has called the bombing a “war crime,” a label that Earnest said he “wouldn’t use” due to the investigations still being underway. “There is no country in the world that goes to greater lengths and places a higher premium on avoiding civilian casualties than the United States Department of Defense,” he said. **Read Next:** [_Doctors Without Borders Denies Taliban Fired From Hospital Hit by Airstrike_](http://time.com/4060612/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4061569/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4061569/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike-white-house/"},"headline":"White House Seeks Answers on Afghan Hospital Bombing","datePublished":"2015-10-05T17:29:39.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T01:06:04.000Z","description":"President Obama thinks investigations by the Pentagon, NATO and Afghan forces will provide answers on why an Afghan hospital was bombed.","url":"https://time.com/4061569/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike-white-house/","keywords":["Military","Afghanistan","doctors without borders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ef6bca2ae5f1443/698866e2bc6cfc2ee63d9c1c/doctors-without-borders-kunduz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ef6bca2ae5f1443/698866e2bc6cfc2ee63d9c1c/doctors-without-borders-kunduz.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Victims of the U.S. Airstrike on Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz, receive treatment at the Mazar-e-Sharif Regional Hospital in Balkh, Afghanistan on October 04, 2015.","caption":"Victims of the U.S. Airstrike on Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz, receive treatment at the Mazar-e-Sharif Regional Hospital in Balkh, Afghanistan on October 04, 2015.","creditText":"Anadolu Agency—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4061569/doctors-without-borders-afghanistan-airstrike-white-house/","name":"White House Seeks Answers on Afghan Hospital Bombing"}}]}] ```