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Death Toll Rises To 22 After Hospital Airstrike

Three further patients have been confirmed dead - bringing the death toll to 22 - after a hospital in Afghanistan was bombed in a suspected US air raid.

It comes as US Defence Secretary Ash Carter promised a full and transparent investigation into the explosions, saying he "would get the facts".

He said: "We do know that American air assets ... were engaged in the Kunduz vicinity, and we do know that the structures that you see in the news were destroyed. I just can't tell you what the connection is at this time."

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it has withdrawn from Kunduz after its hospital was attacked early on Saturday morning.

Many other aid workers and patients were seriously wounded.

"All critical patients have been referred to other health facilities and no MSF staff are working in our hospital," said MSF's communications manager Kate Stegeman.

"Some of our medical staff have gone to work in two hospitals where some of the wounded have been taken," she added.

The MSF hospital was badly damaged in the airstrike, which was part of an offensive against Taliban militants who overran Kunduz last Monday.

They have since been driven to the outskirts of the provincial capital by Afghan forces, but pockets remain.

MSF says the hospital was hit despite the fact it had informed the US, NATO and the Afghan military of its location a number of times to avoid being caught in crossfire.

The US has launched an investigation into the tragedy with President Barack Obama offering his "deepest condolences" for those killed and wounded.

But MSF has called for a "full and transparent" inquiry by an "independent international body" as it believes a war crime may have been committed.

On Saturday, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan said they had conducted an airstrike in Kunduz against militants that "may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility".

Afghan officials later claimed helicopter gunships returned fire from "10 to 15" Taliban fighters who were hiding in the building.

MSF has denied there were any militants there at the time, as have the Taliban.

A nurse at the hospital has said he saw "six patients burning in their beds" after the air raid.

Lajos Zoltan Jecs, who was asleep when it was hit, said: "It was absolutely terrifying."

He said he and other staff went outside when the bombing stopped. "What we saw was the hospital destroyed, burning.

“We went to look for survivors. A few had already made it to one of the safe rooms. One by one, people started appearing, wounded, including some of our colleagues and caretakers of patients.

"We tried to take a look into one of the burning buildings. There are no words for how terrible it was. In the intensive care unit six patients were burning in their beds."

The UN has denounced the bombing as "inexcusable and possibly even criminal".