As the battle for Kunduz rages on in Afghanistan between the Taliban and a coalition of Afghan and US forces, the humanitarian crisis plaguing the city continues as it becomes borderline uninhabitable due to the fighting. In the fog of war, a major hospital staffed by the medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) that served as a “lifeline” for the battered citizens of Kunduz has been bombed in a suspected US airstrike, to the outrage of the world. The bombing has resulted in the death of at least 22 staff and patients and the wounding of a further 37 individuals and the damage to the structure means that the hospital is no longer functioning. As a consequence the MSF has pulled its staff from the city and has transferred doctors and critical patients to two hospitals outside the city of Kunduz. The destruction of the hospital is not only going to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis but will also deepen the political crisis surrounding the Ashraf Ghani-led Afghan government and complicate the involvement of the US forces in Afghanistan. MSF’s director general is understandably appalled at the incident and does not hesitate to call the targeting of the hospital a “war crime” because a functioning hospital in a war zone can never be justified as a target. The US’s Defence Secretary Ash Carter is using verbal gymnastics to state the facts without outright admitting US involvement in the bombing while an army colonel goes a little further and states that an airstrike against Taliban in the vicinity of the hospital “may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.” All the same, the US expressed its regret and promised to conduct an internal investigation into the matter. The MSF however refuses to bite and will not be satisfied with anything less than an independent investigation. It also categorically denies the claim of Afghan forces that the Taliban had infiltrated the hospital and were using it as a base. Furthermore it uses this statement as a proof of the coalition forces’ deliberate targeting of the hospital. It is hard, at this point, to fully assess the situation or to comment on the legality or otherwise of the strike. While the destruction of the hospital is indeed lamentable, collateral damage is an unfortunate reality in any warzone. Judgement about it being a deliberate act of war should be reserved until the facts are out in the open. The US has in the past been averse to letting external bodies investigate its actions and it is likely that it will similarly resist MSF’s calls for an independent inquiry. However, the US’s credibility is now on the line and it should undertake efforts to ensure the transparency and credibility of the investigation. In the unlikely event that MSF’s allegations are clearly proved, the implications for the stability of Afghanistan’s government and the US’s further military involvement will be negative. *