“The President assured [Doctors Without Borders International President] Dr. [Joanne] Liu that the Department of Defense investigation, currently underway, would provide a transparent, thorough and objective accounting of the facts and circumstances of the incident,” Earnest stated. “[I]f necessary, the President would implement changes that would make tragedies like this one less likely to occur in the future.”
Some 22 people, including 12 Doctors Without Borders staff were killed as a result of the US airstrike in Kunduz on October 3.
Doctors Without Borders called the attack a war crime and said it would conduct an independent investigation into the incident.
"[T]he use of that term carries a certain legal meaning, and… the Department of Defense… takes as many precautions as anybody else does… to prevent the innocent loss of life in operations that they carry out," Earnest said.
Earnest concluded that President Obama felt he had enough knowledge of the incident to give a formal apology to Liu and the rest of the Doctors Without Borders team.
On Wednesday, Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad told Sputnik that Western countries are trying to divert attention from the Kunduz bombing incident by accusing Russia of killing civilians in Syria.
