Medical aid charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) slammed a US attack that killed 22 staff and patients at its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz as "unacceptable" in a statement released Wednesday.
"Nothing can excuse violence against patients, medical workers and health facilities," Dr Joanne Liu, president of MSF International, said in a statement on the organization's website, which calls for an investigation into the US airstrikes.
"Under International Humanitarian Law hospitals in conflict zones are protected spaces. Until proven otherwise, the events of last Saturday amount to an inexcusable violation of this law. We are working on the presumption of a war crime."
MSF withdrew from the northern Afghan city of Kunduz the day after a series of US aerial bombing raids destroyed its hospital, killing 12 staff and 10 patients, three of whom were children.
All humanitarian agencies have now left Kunduz, UN emergency relief spokesman Jens Laerke said.
General John Campbell, in command of international forces in Afghanistan, called the bombing a "very serious and tragic circumstance," offered condolences for the death of civilians.
A US military investigation is under way, but MSF is demanding "a transparent, independent investigation" into the attacks, which it claims were deliberately coordinated by coalition air forces and the Afghan military.
Taliban were still carrying out sporadic hit-and-run attacks in the north-eastern city Tuesday, several days after Afghanistan's government announced the retaking of Kunduz by security forces.
The hospital had treated 400 patients in the week leading up to the strikes amid heavy fighting in the area.
By Najeebullah Hazem and Subel Bhandari
