MSF said that an independent humanitarian commission created under the Geneva Conventions in 1991 should be activated for the first time to handle the inquiry. Obama telephoned MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, International President Joanne Liu to apologize and express his condolences, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Hours before her conversation with President Obama, Liu said the organization, known by its French acronym MSF, cannot rely on the internal probes being conducted by the U.S., Afghanistan and NATO. "President Obama expressed regret over the tragic incident and offered his thoughts and prayers on behalf of the American people to the victims, their families, and loved ones," the White House statement said. "Acknowledging the great respect he has for the important and lifesaving work that MSF does for vulnerable communities in Afghanistan and around the world, the President assured Liu of his expectation that the Department of Defense investigation currently underway would provide a transparent, thorough and objective accounting of the facts and circumstances of the incident." The United States military took responsibility on Tuesday for the air strike, calling it a mistake. In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, Liu acknowledged receiving Obama's call, but repeated her earlier demand for an independent panel to conduct an investigation under the Geneva Conventions, "to establish what happened in Kunduz, how it happened and why it happened." For charity, 'the biggest loss of life ... in an airstrike' 
 
 The attack in the embattled city Saturday killed 12 medical staff members and at least 10 patients, three of them children. 'If we let this go, we are basically giving blank check to any countries at war' says #MSF Int'l Prez @JoanneLiu_MSF pic.twitter.com/p3YDpUepbq — MSF East Africa (@MSFNairobi) October 7, 2015 
 
 Another 37 people were wounded, according to the global charity group, which works in conflict zones to help victims of war and other tragedies. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army General John Campbell, says the United States is taking the blame for carrying out Saturday's raid after Afghan forces requested it to attack Taliban insurgents it believed were firing from inside the medical facility. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking to reporters in Rome on Wednesday, said the investigation would "hold accountable anyone responsible for conduct that was improper." Sunday, 4 October -- Gen. John Campbell, U.S. military chief in Afghanistan "U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Kunduz city at 2:15am (local), Oct 3, against insurgents who were directly firing upon U.S. service members advising and assisting Afghan Security Forces in the city of Kunduz. This was not the little bush hospital. Campbell told a congressional committee Tuesday the hospital was "mistakenly struck" and the United States "would never intentionally target a protected medical facility." Meanwhile, U.S. officials are probing whether the military exceeded its authority for use of force in Afghanistan in launching the airstrike. Obama also called Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to voice his condolences for the innocent loss of lives in the aerial bombardment Saturday, the spokesman said, and to commend Afghan forces for their bravery in the fight to control the northern Afghan city in clashes with Taliban insurgents. "Today we say enough, even war has rules." Neither the United States nor Afghanistan were signatories to the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) but Jason Cone, executive director of MSF in the United States, called on Obama to consent to the commission. "In Kunduz, our patients burned in their beds, our doctors' nurses and other staff were killed as they worked, our colleagues had to operate on each other.  WASHINGTON/GENEVA U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday apologized to Medecins Sans Frontieres for the deadly bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, while the medical charity pressed its demand for an international commission to investigate what it calls a war crime. The troops allegedly entered the hospital -- which, according to MSF, "has a strict no weapons policy" like its other facilities -- and "physically assaulted three MSF staff members (and arrested) three patients." Only then would MSF consider whether to bring criminal charges for loss of life and partial destruction of its trauma hospital, which has left tens of thousands of Afghans without access to health care, it said.
– Doctors Without Borders isn't letting the deadly airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan slip quietly away. The group Wednesday called the US bombing that killed 12 of its staffers and 10 patients "an attack on the Geneva Conventions" and called for an unprecedented independent investigation, reports Voice of America. "Even war has rules," said its president, Joanne Liu. Her group wants the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission—a panel set up under the Conventions in 1991 but never used—to launch an inquiry. It takes the request of one its 76 signatory nations to launch one, reports CNN. "Governments up to now have been too polite or afraid to set a precedent," said Liu. "The tool exists, and it is time it is activated." The group has called the airstrike a war crime, and Liu says internal investigations by the US or Afghanistan aren't enough. “If we let this go as if it were a nonevent, we are basically giving a blank check to any countries at war." Only when the investigation is complete will the group decide whether to pursue criminal charges, reports Reuters. (On Tuesday, a US general called the airstrike a mistake.)