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| Afghan Family Remembers a Loving Son Killed in Airstrike on Kunduz Hospital | |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| KABUL, Afghanistan — He was well-known around his hometown, Kunduz, as the big-hearted, half-blind janitor who worked at the Doctors Without Borders hospital, swabbing the blood of war wounded from its tiled halls. | KABUL, Afghanistan — He was well-known around his hometown, Kunduz, as the big-hearted, half-blind janitor who worked at the Doctors Without Borders hospital, swabbing the blood of war wounded from its tiled halls. |
| On the Friday before last, Najibullah Momand had volunteered to remain on duty despite the heavy fighting taking place around the city because his grandfather lives near the hospital and he could stay with him and get to work more safely than most. | On the Friday before last, Najibullah Momand had volunteered to remain on duty despite the heavy fighting taking place around the city because his grandfather lives near the hospital and he could stay with him and get to work more safely than most. |
| Najibullah had a genetic eye disease that forced him to drop out in the eighth grade, so he was thrilled when four years ago he got the relatively well-paying janitorial job at the hospital run here by Doctors Without Borders. | Najibullah had a genetic eye disease that forced him to drop out in the eighth grade, so he was thrilled when four years ago he got the relatively well-paying janitorial job at the hospital run here by Doctors Without Borders. |
| That Friday his father had grown worried about intensified fighting between government forces and Taliban militants who had taken over the city earlier in the week, and called him on his cellphone. “Please come home, son,” he said. | That Friday his father had grown worried about intensified fighting between government forces and Taliban militants who had taken over the city earlier in the week, and called him on his cellphone. “Please come home, son,” he said. |
| “Come on, Dad, the situation is always getting worse,” he responded. “I must help our people.” | “Come on, Dad, the situation is always getting worse,” he responded. “I must help our people.” |
| Najibullah, 26, was 6-foot-3, and so good-looking that a woman on his block once approached his father, Mohammad Ajmal Momand, and asked if he was married. When he said he was, she volunteered to be his second wife; Najibullah said he was happy with just one. | |
| His two children, Mujib, 4, and Sahar, 18 months, were both born with only about 30 percent sight, the same condition as their father, but it is potentially correctable with surgery. The Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz was only a trauma unit, treating war victims, so Najibullah saved his money and took his children to Pakistan for the first of a series of eye operations. Both children now wear thick corrective lenses, and have regained some vision. | His two children, Mujib, 4, and Sahar, 18 months, were both born with only about 30 percent sight, the same condition as their father, but it is potentially correctable with surgery. The Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz was only a trauma unit, treating war victims, so Najibullah saved his money and took his children to Pakistan for the first of a series of eye operations. Both children now wear thick corrective lenses, and have regained some vision. |
| As fighting intensified in the Kunduz area, and aid group expanded its 92-bed hospital to 150 beds, Najibullah’s mother worried about the psychological effect of his job, as well as the danger in being at what had become a front-line hospital in a war zone. | As fighting intensified in the Kunduz area, and aid group expanded its 92-bed hospital to 150 beds, Najibullah’s mother worried about the psychological effect of his job, as well as the danger in being at what had become a front-line hospital in a war zone. |
| “This man would clean up the mess of hundreds of war victims and the doctors were very happy with him,” said Mr. Momand. “He was always telling his mother, ‘Mom, if I die serving my people in this job, I will be a martyr.’ ” | “This man would clean up the mess of hundreds of war victims and the doctors were very happy with him,” said Mr. Momand. “He was always telling his mother, ‘Mom, if I die serving my people in this job, I will be a martyr.’ ” |
| That is not the consolation a mother necessarily wants, so he also told her that under the Geneva Conventions, hospitals would not be attacked. In the long, bloody history of Afghanistan’s present war, it had never happened, he told her. | That is not the consolation a mother necessarily wants, so he also told her that under the Geneva Conventions, hospitals would not be attacked. In the long, bloody history of Afghanistan’s present war, it had never happened, he told her. |
| He did worry that the Taliban might bomb the hospital, since they seemed less inclined to follow international rules, Mr. Momand said. He never dreamed the Americans would do such a thing. That Friday, speaking on the phone with his father, Najibullah said he was sorry he could not get home, because he had a present for his daughter. | He did worry that the Taliban might bomb the hospital, since they seemed less inclined to follow international rules, Mr. Momand said. He never dreamed the Americans would do such a thing. That Friday, speaking on the phone with his father, Najibullah said he was sorry he could not get home, because he had a present for his daughter. |
| “I bought a nice pair of flip-flops for Sahar,” Najibullah told his father, as Mr. Momand recalled the conversation later. “I can’t wait to bring them to her, she’ll be so excited. Please kiss her and Mujib for me and tell them Daddy will be home soon.” | “I bought a nice pair of flip-flops for Sahar,” Najibullah told his father, as Mr. Momand recalled the conversation later. “I can’t wait to bring them to her, she’ll be so excited. Please kiss her and Mujib for me and tell them Daddy will be home soon.” |
| It was a relatively quiet evening, probably the quietest since the Taliban took over Kunduz five days earlier. Najibullah’s brother Naqibullah, 20, was also on duty; as a porter, his job was to move patients between the wards and the main building, where most of the medical treatment took place. | It was a relatively quiet evening, probably the quietest since the Taliban took over Kunduz five days earlier. Najibullah’s brother Naqibullah, 20, was also on duty; as a porter, his job was to move patients between the wards and the main building, where most of the medical treatment took place. |
| Earlier that day, five members of a family had been wounded in crossfire as they tried to flee Kunduz. There were three children and their two parents, all with gunshot wounds. Blood was always in short supply, and both brothers were Type O, making them universal donors, so when the doctors asked, Najibullah and Naqibullah donated blood for two of the children, girls 14 and 2. The 14-year-old died shortly after, but the 2-year-old held on to life. | |
| “We have been serving in this hospital with all our heart,” Naqibullah said. He admired his brother, he said, for persevering at work despite his disability. | “We have been serving in this hospital with all our heart,” Naqibullah said. He admired his brother, he said, for persevering at work despite his disability. |
| Najibullah and Naqibullah were both still on duty, together in a corridor of the main building, “when the first boom happened,” Naqibullah said. It was 2:08 a.m. on Oct. 3. “Everyone was just screaming, it was a disaster.” Both brothers pitched in, carrying the wounded into the basement shelter. After one explosion, Naqibullah took pieces of shrapnel in his leg and back, and ended up on a gurney himself. Somewhere along the way he lost track of Najibullah. | Najibullah and Naqibullah were both still on duty, together in a corridor of the main building, “when the first boom happened,” Naqibullah said. It was 2:08 a.m. on Oct. 3. “Everyone was just screaming, it was a disaster.” Both brothers pitched in, carrying the wounded into the basement shelter. After one explosion, Naqibullah took pieces of shrapnel in his leg and back, and ended up on a gurney himself. Somewhere along the way he lost track of Najibullah. |
| He remembered seeing two doctors lying dead in the main building, which was hit in five separate bombing runs, according to Doctors Without Borders. Another doctor died while his colleagues were operating on him, using a desk as an operating table. “I didn’t have time to help my brother,” Naqibullah said. “The bombing continued until three a.m., and then I found out.” | He remembered seeing two doctors lying dead in the main building, which was hit in five separate bombing runs, according to Doctors Without Borders. Another doctor died while his colleagues were operating on him, using a desk as an operating table. “I didn’t have time to help my brother,” Naqibullah said. “The bombing continued until three a.m., and then I found out.” |
| Mr. Momand spoke about what happened next with difficulty. “Since the Americans say they can see a nine-inch nail on the ground from their planes, then how is this not a war crime?” | Mr. Momand spoke about what happened next with difficulty. “Since the Americans say they can see a nine-inch nail on the ground from their planes, then how is this not a war crime?” |
| He is angry with the acting governor of Kunduz, Hamdullah Danishi, who continues to try to justify the incident by claiming that the Taliban provoked the airstrikes by firing from the hospital grounds. Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French initials, M.S.F., denies that and says all of the surviving members of its 100-member staff on duty at the time have confirmed that there were no armed Taliban in the hospital or its compound that night. | |
| Until the bombing began that night, there was not even any serious gunfire in the vicinity of the hospital, according to the country director of Doctors Without Borders, Guilhem Molinie, other than a single stray bullet fired into the hospital compound about 11 p.m. Friday, three hours before the bombing began. | Until the bombing began that night, there was not even any serious gunfire in the vicinity of the hospital, according to the country director of Doctors Without Borders, Guilhem Molinie, other than a single stray bullet fired into the hospital compound about 11 p.m. Friday, three hours before the bombing began. |
| “We pay tribute to those M.S.F. staff who, while watching their colleagues die and with their hospital still on fire, carried on treating the wounded,” said the group’s president, Dr. Joanne Liu. “We pay tribute to those who died in this abhorrent attack.” | |
| Najibullah was one of at least a dozen staff members of Doctors Without Borders who died. Among the 10 patients who also died was the 2-year-old girl to whom Najibullah had donated his blood. | Najibullah was one of at least a dozen staff members of Doctors Without Borders who died. Among the 10 patients who also died was the 2-year-old girl to whom Najibullah had donated his blood. |
| Mr. Momand went to the burned-out hospital the next day to try to find Najibullah’s body, but all he came home with was two handfuls of ashes that might have been his son. | Mr. Momand went to the burned-out hospital the next day to try to find Najibullah’s body, but all he came home with was two handfuls of ashes that might have been his son. |