Human Rights Watch slams US failure to criminally investigate MSF hospital bombing

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized the US' failure to criminally investigate senior officials over an airstrike on a Doctors without Borders (MSF) hospital in Afghanistan in October.

In a statement released late Thursday, the non-governmental rights organization said the lack of a criminal investigation was "not only an affront to the lives lost at the MSF hospital, but a blow against the rule of law in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world."

The statement said administrative punishments, which were given to 11 US military personnel over the attack, were an "insult" and "injustice" to the victims' families.

At least 42 people, including 24 patients, 14 staff and four caretakers, were killed and 37 others wounded in the October 3 US airstrike on the hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, during which the building was completely destroyed.

The HRW statement added that the US military's poor history in prosecuting "alleged war crimes" in Iraq and Afghanistan was in itself grounds for allowing an investigation outside the military chain of command.

The statement said that the US military carried out its own internal investigation and decided that "no crimes had been committed."

"Human Rights Watch has analyzed information from the US military, MSF, and other sources and found a strong basis for determining that criminal liability exists," the statement said.

The punishments handed out to the 11 military personnel involved "letters of reprimand and other noncriminal penalties for those who ordered and carried out the attack."

The watchdog called on the US Department of Defense to establish independent authorities "to control referrals of criminal charges and the convening of courts martial."

The MSF hospital was bombed during the Taliban's brief takeover of Kunduz city in late September. It was the first time since the Taliban were ousted from power that a major city fell into the hands of the terrorist group.