U.S. to pay condolence payments to victims of airstrikes on Afghan hospital

The United States will make "condolence payments" to the civilian victims injured and killed in the deadly airstrike on a hospital run by an aid agency in Kunduz, Afghanistan last week, the Pentagon said here on Saturday.

"The Department of Defense believes it is important to address the consequences of the tragic incident at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan," the Pentagon said in a statement.

"One step the Department can take is to make condolence payments to civilian non-combatants injured and the families of civilian non-combatants killed as a result of U.S. military operations," it said.

According to the statement, the United States would also pay for the repair of the hospital, but the amount of the payments has not been determined.

The airstrike on Oct.3 "mistakenly struck" a hospital run by the aid agency Doctors Without Borders, Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan John Campbell acknowledged here on Tuesday in a congressional hearing, saying that three separate investigations by the Pentagon, NATO and the Afghan government were currently underway.

Meanwhile, the aid agency insisted that it had given GPS coordinates to the U.S. military before and during the attack, which killed 22 and injured more, and called for an independent investigation into the incident. Endi