Pentagon to pay families of victims killed in Kunduz hospital raid

The Pentagon is offering "condolence payments" to the civilians injured and the families of those killed by a US airstrike that destroyed a hospital near Kunduz, Afghanistan.

The Oct. 3 airstrike hit a hospital run by the international charity Doctors Without Borders and left 22 people dead. President Barack Obama apologized for the incident, and the US and Afghan governments are separately investigating what happened, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Pentagon said Saturday that it would provide funds for repairing the hospital, which has been abandoned, as well as the payments. It didn’t say how much it would pay.

The compensation will be handled through the existing Commanders’ Emergency Response Program in Afghanistan, and if necessary additional authority will be sought from Congress, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement issued Saturday.

"The Department of Defense believes it is important to address the consequences of the tragic incident that the Doctors Without Borders hospital," Cook said.