Doctors Without Borders staff maimed by gunfire while attempting to flee hospital bombed by U.S.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is still pleading with President Obama to conduct an independent investigation into the October bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Launched in the middle of the night, the U.S. led airstrike killed 30 people, the majority of which were doctors and medical staff, according to an internal report released by the organization on Thursday, which revealed that they were not only bombed, but targeted by gunfire as terrified victims attempted to flee.

Some were shot from the air while fleeing burning building, as gunship circled https://t.co/TpvgZ21TiK #KunduzReport pic.twitter.com/QhfEvcvwdQ

— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) November 5, 2015

Outrage ensued following the attack after MSF made public the fact that the U.S. was 100 percent aware of the hospital’s location. The U.S. had been given the MSF hospital’s GPS coordinates on multiple occasions, with the most recent disclosure occurring just three days before the attack.

2 children killed in first room of hospital bombed by U.S.

The U.S. led airstrike continued for at least one hour despite frantic calls made from frightened Doctors Without Borders staff to both the U.S. and Afghan officials.

1st room hit- ICU. Staff caring for immobile patients. 2 children in the room https://t.co/K8jtdFQ3VK #KunduzReport pic.twitter.com/6YAEYHhb9Z

— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) November 5, 2015

The attack left immobilized patients burning in their beds and fatally wounded doctors performing surgeries at the time of the attack.

One MSF staff member was decapitated by shrapnel

Buzzfeed reports:

The initial call was placed at 2:19 a.m. By 2:52 a.m. a reply from Resolute Support was received, saying, “I’m sorry to hear that, I still do not know what happened.

The hospital staff sent another message, insisting the strikes stop, and were told, “I’ll do my best, praying for you all.”

Badly injured staff members fled the building including one nurse who was “covered head to toe in debris and blood with his left arm hanging from a small piece of tissue” and another who was bleeding out of his left eye.

That’s when staff say that gunfire hit them, most likely coming from a plane.

One MSF staff member described a patient in a wheelchair attempting to escape from the inpatient department when he was killed by shrapnel from a blast. An MSF doctor suffered a traumatic amputation to the leg in one of the blasts.

He was later operated on by the MSF team on a makeshift operating table on an office desk where he died.

Other MSF staff describe seeing people running while on fire and then falling unconscious on the ground.

One MSF staff member was decapitated by shrapnel in the airstrikes.

The attacks lasted just over an hour, and by 3:15 a.m., all bombing had stopped. In total, at least 30 people were killed. That includes 10 patients, 13 staff members, and another 7 bodies that were burned so badly that they have not been identified.

U.S. military decimated medical care for hundreds of thousands in Northern Afghanistan

The death and destruction doesn’t stop with those wounded and killed during the attack as it was the only hospital providing care in the region. Destroying the hospital left hundreds of thousand without medical care in Northern Afghanistan.

#independentinvestigation #kunduz @brunodecock pic.twitter.com/CS1Z3rXZZc

— Jason Cone (@jtcone1977) November 4, 2015

The Doctors Without Borders hospital did not discriminate against who it treated, including Taliban fighters and was likely targeted for that reason either by Afghan military officials or the U.S. military itself, said The Intercept in an October report.

Desperately seeking justice, Doctors Without Borders have launched a petition drive demanding an investigation into the attack. So far, more than 400,000 have echoed their demands. You can join them in their fight by signing their petition here.

“We don’t have view from cockpit or from within Afghan & US chain of command. We need a #IndependentInvestigation,” said the organization.