US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Wednesday indicated the United States would maintain extra troops in Afghanistan beyond the end of next year.

Under current plans, the United States will draw-down its troop numbers by the end of 2016 from about 10,000 currently to a crew of only about 1,000.

Echoing remarks he made at a NATO meeting in Brussels last week, Carter said it was important for the United States "to formulate options for 2016 and beyond and make adjustments to the planned US presence based on current circumstances."

The Obama administration has come under criticism for its planned withdrawal of forces, with opponents saying the move opens up Afghanistan to more attacks by the Taliban, who just two weeks ago captured the city of Kunduz.

A swift response by US-trained Afghan security forces led to an eventual Taliban retreat.

"It's important to say these things because the narrative that we're leaving Afghanistan is self-defeating," Carter told an Army conference in Washington.

"We're not, we can't, and to do so would not be to take advantage of the success we've had to date."

NATO forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001.

Though the United States represents by far the largest contingent, Carter last week said several NATO defense ministers told him they were open to modifications to current plans.

MSF hails 'first step' towards international probe of Afghan hospital bombing
Geneva (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 – Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday that an international commission has been formally asked to investigate a deadly US airstrike on an Afghan hospital, that killed 22 people, including 12 of the medical charity's staff.

The organisation, known by its French acronym MSF, demanded last week that an independent international commission investigate the hospital attack in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3.

The International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC), an independent mechanism created under international law but which has never before been used, needs one of 76 signatory states to sponsor an inquiry before a probe can begin.

"MSF has been informed that the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission has been activated," the charity said in a statement.

"This is the first step needed to undertake an independent investigation into the attack," it said, adding though that the IHFFC still needed the agreement of the United States and Afghanistan.

Commission vice-president Thilo Marauhn told AFP that the body had sent letters requesting the green light from US and Afghan authorities to begin, "but we have not yet received a response."

President Barack Obama has apologised to MSF and three investigations by the US military, NATO and by Afghan officials are already underway into the attack, which was carried out after the Taliban's brief but bloody capture of Kunduz.

MSF has condemned the attack as a war crime and insists an independent probe is needed since it "cannot rely only on the ongoing internal investigations by parties to the conflict."

"We have received apologies and condolences, but this is not enough," MSF chief Joanne Liu said in the statement.

"We are still in the dark about why a well-known hospital full of patients and medical staff was repeatedly bombarded for more than an hour," she said, insisting: "We need to understand what happened and why."

Beyond determining the circumstances surrounding the Kunduz hospital bombing, MSF insists an investigation by the IHFFC is needed to reaffirm the international laws protecting humanitarian actors in all conflict zones.

"We need to know if the rules of war have changed, not just for Kunduz, but for the safety of our teams working in frontline hospitals all over the world," Liu said.

Death toll from US air strike on Afghan hospital rises to 24: MSF
Kabul (AFP) Oct 14, 2015 –

The death toll from a US air strike on an Afghan hospital has risen to at least 24 with two more Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff now presumed dead, the organisation said Wednesday.

Twenty-two other MSF staff who were missing have now been accounted for after the organisation was able to make contact with them, a spokeswoman told AFP.

Nine patients remain missing after the October 3 strike as MSF continues to try and trace their whereabouts, she said.

MSF added that an international fact-finding commission it had called on to probe the strike, which prompted global revulsion, had sent letters to the US and Afghan governments seeking their agreement for it to launch an investigation.

"We have received apologies and condolences, but this is not enough. We are still in the dark about why a well-known hospital full of patients and medical staff was repeatedly bombarded for more than an hour," said Dr Joanne Liu, MSF International President.

"We need to understand what happened and why."

The Pentagon announced on the weekend it would make compensation payments for those killed and injured in the attack, which caused MSF to close the hospital's trauma centre, seen as a lifeline in a war-battered region with scant medical care.