On Wednesday, President Obama broke his silence and apologized to Doctors Without Borders for the bombing of the Afghan hospital where at least 22 people were killed over the weekend during an intense fight with the Taliban.

"This morning from the Oval Office, President Obama spoke by telephone with Doctors Without Borders International President Dr. Joanne Liu, to apologize and express his condolences for the MSF staff and patients who were killed and injured when a US military airstrike mistakenly struck an MSF field hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan over the weekend," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

“When we make a mistake," he added, "we’re honest about it, we own up to it, we apologize where necessary as the president did in this case. We implement the kinds of changes that make it less likely that those kinds of mistakes will occur in the future.”

In addition to his phone call to Dr. Liu, he also phoned Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, sending more condolences "for the innocent loss of life."

After receiving Obama's apology, Dr. Liu issued the following statement:

We received President Obama's apology today for the attack against our trauma hospital in Afghanistan. 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.

Earnest said the president assured Dr. Liu on the phone that the Defense Department's investigation, as well as the DoJ's, will be transparent, thorough, and objective, and the U.S. military will do all they can to ensure something like this doesn't happen again.

MSF Executive Director Jason Cone spoke today in a news conference adding to Liu's frustration, "Today, we say enough. Even war has rules."