Afghans’ response in wake of hospital bombing is muted

KABUL — Over the past five years, suspected U.S. airstrikes that killed civilians in Afghanistan often played out like this:

Then-President Hamid Karzai would fire off biting statements accusing the U.S. military of incompetence. Protesters would then pour into the streets, spewing even more pointed words for the United States. And Afghan news outlets would carry the fallout in wall-to-wall coverage.

But on Sunday — after a suspected U.S. airstrike killed 22 people at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz over the weekend and horrified humanitarian groups around the world — the response in Afghanistan was surprisingly muted.

Instead of harsh criticism aimed at the U.S. military, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stayed silent except to convey his 'sorrow' over the deaths of civilians. No large protests were reported. And Afghanistan's leading news outlet, Tolo News, had largely dropped its coverage of the hospital bombing by Sunday evening.

The tempered tone here comes as Afghan politicians and military leaders are growing increasingly anxious over President Barack Obama's pending decision about whether he will stick to his pledge to withdraw all remaining 9,800 U.S. troops from the country by the end of 2016.

As Obama's decision draws closer, Afghan politicians are growing more cautious in how they respond to alleged American blunders, observers say.

'There is a thought that if people start speaking out about mishaps and seem to be opposing international troops that (Obama) might just say, 'Enough is enough,' ' said Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan member of parliament from northern Badakhshan province, where the Taliban has taken over several districts.

U.S. expresses sorrow

In Madrid, where he arrived on Sunday, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter expressed his 'thoughts and prayers for the innocent lives lost' in the hospital attack in Kunduz.

'This is a tragic loss of life,' Carter said.

Carter also said joint investigations by the U.S. military, NATO and the government of Afghanistan have begun, and he pledged to make them public once they are completed. But he cautioned that the shelling of the hospital occurred under hazy circumstances and that investigators are just starting to piece together what happened.

Carter confirmed that some U.S. troops were in the vicinity of the hospital and that they reported coming under attack. He also confirmed that U.S. fighter aircraft were nearby and opened fire.

He said Kunduz 'continues to be a contested area' and that neither U.S. nor Afghan government forces had been able to take control of the hospital compound, further hampering the investigation.

Carter said he had spoken with Gen. John Campbell, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, but had not ordered a halt to U.S. airstrikes near Kunduz.

Some Afghan military leaders and politicians on Sunday appeared sympathetic to the controversy that the U.S. military now finds itself embroiled in.

'When insurgents try to use civilians and public places to hide, it makes it very, very difficult, and we understand how this can happen,' Koofi said. 'You have two choices: Either continue operations to clean up, and that might involve attacks in public places, or you just let the Taliban control. In this case, the public understands we went with the first choice, along with our international allies.'

Support in Kunduz

In Kunduz, the acting governor, Hamdullah Danishi, also suggested that the airstrike was warranted. He said Taliban fighters had been using the Doctors Without Borders compound to carry out attacks across the city, including firing rocket-propelled grenades from the property.

Danishi said the suspected U.S. airstrike had been aimed along the perimeter of the hospital grounds. He said the main hospital building, where most of the causalities occurred, caught fire but was not the main target.

Doctors Without Borders disputed suggestions that Taliban fighters were in the hospital at the time of the attack.

Along with 12 Doctors Without Borders staff members, the airstrike killed 10 patients at the hospital, including three children, hospital officials said.

Independent review

Christopher Stokes, general director of Doctors Without Borders, which closed its hospital in the Kunduz province Sunday, is demanding a 'fully transparent' and independent review of the incident.

The organization, he said in a statement, is 'disgusted' by some Afghan officials' attempts to justify the attack.

A decision to raze the hospital because Taliban were present 'amounts to an admission of a war crime,' he said.

All those killed in the airstrike were Afghans, according to hospital officials. Still, for some current and former Afghan officials, the biggest worry on Sunday appeared to be that the fallout from the strike could cause the U.S.-led coalition to scale back future military operations.

Earlier this year, after the bulk of American troops left Afghanistan, Afghan leaders were angered that their military could no longer rely on U.S. air power. As a result, Afghan officials said, the Taliban and Islamic State militants expanded their footprint in parts of the country.

Over the summer, however, the number of airstrikes rose, and after the Taliban advanced into Kunduz, Afghan forces relied on coalition air support to prevent their last safe haven in the city, the airport, from being overrun.

'The U.S. needs not only to keep, but to increase its presence in Afghanistan,' said Jamil Junbish, a retired general and former deputy interior minister.

'Reduction of troops will turn Afghanistan into another Iraq or Syria.'

That message — not the embarrassment associated with the hospital bombing — is what many Afghans hope resonates with Obama, said Mohammad Nateqi, a political analyst and former Afghan diplomat.

The United States 'knows the Taliban and terrorists are like a cancerous gland,' Nateqi said. 'They will not just abandon us.'