33 remain missing after Doctors Without Borders hospital hit in Afghanistan

Katharine Lackey | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Obama apologizes after deadly bombing on hospital President Obama called Doctors Without Borders to apologize for the U.S. bombing of its hospital in Afghanistan that killed at least 22 people, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday.

Thirty-three people remain unaccounted for after a deadly weekend U.S. airstrike hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, the organization said Thursday.

Missing are 24 staff members and nine patients who were in the hospital at the time of the blast early Saturday morning, Guilhem Molinie, the charity's representative in Afghanistan, told reporters at a news conference in Kabul on Thursday.

There were 461 staff and 105 patients in the facility at the time of the bombing, which left at least 22 dead and 37 injured. The U.S. said the airstrike was a mistake made during fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban, which took control of the city for three days last week.

"At the moment we are trying to find trace of any of our staff but also any of our patients," Molinie said, according to NBC News. "We also know that we may find some other bodies inside the hospital, we are waiting for the possibility to access the hospital, or for people who have the capacity to do it, to help us to clarify these numbers."

On Wednesday, President Obama called the aid organization's president to apologize for the strike just hours after the group announced it was pressing for an unprecedented, independent fact-finding mission under the Geneva Conventions. Doctors Without Borders has condemned the attack as a possible "war crime."

"The president offered up his personal apology," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Obama told the organization that an ongoing Pentagon investigation would "provide a transparent, thorough and objective accounting of the facts and circumstances of the incident," he added.

Earnest disputed claims the airstrike amounted to a war crime, saying there is no evidence "that this was anything other than a terrible, tragic mistake."

Joanne Liu, Doctors Without Borders' international president, said the organization received Obama's apology. "However, we reiterate our ask that the U.S. government consent to an independent investigation led by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to establish what happened in Kunduz, how it happened, and why it happened," she said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, Liu said the strike “was not just an attack on our hospital, it was an attack on the Geneva Conventions. This cannot be tolerated.”

Contributing: Doug Stanglin and David Jackson