Medical charity MSF demands independent inquiry into air strike on Afghan hospital

STAFF PULLED OUT

In the air strike, witnesses said patients were burned alive in the crowded hospital. Among the dead were three children being treated.

MSF said on Sunday it had pulled most of its staff out of the area because the hospital that was a lifeline for thousands in the city was no longer functioning. Some staff had gone to help treat the wounded at other hospitals outside of Kunduz.

Earlier this year, an Afghan special forces raid in search of a suspected al Qaeda operative prompted the hospital to temporarily close to new patients after the soldiers were accused of behaving violently towards staff.

The struggle to retake Kunduz has raised questions over whether NATO-trained Afghan forces are ready to go it alone now that most foreign combat troops have left.

Afghan security forces conducted house-to-house searches in Kunduz on Sunday as gunbattles persisted in parts of the city, said Hamdullah Danishi, acting governor of Kunduz province. He said 480 Taliban fighters and 35 soldiers had been killed.

The army raised the national flag in the central square, an area of the city that has changed hands several times in the fighting during the last week.

"Our security forces took control of strategic areas in Kunduz," Danishi said. "We have a clearance operation ongoing."

Afghan military helicopters dropped 6,000 leaflets on Sunday urging people to cooperate with the army, the defence ministry said.

"If you see abandoned military vehicles or equipment anywhere turn them over to security forces," the leaflets read.

Corpses lay in the streets unburied and people were too afraid to leave their homes, said one resident, Gulboddin.

"You can hear the sound of gunfire all over the city," said Gulboddin, who has only one name. "Some of the bodies are decomposing."