GENEVA (AP) — Doctors Without Borders says it has received word that an international humanitarian fact-finding commission has asked the United States and Afghanistan to authorize a probe of the U.S. deadly air strikes on an Afghan hospital.

The aid agency known by the French acronym MSF said the Switzerland-based IHFFC has been "activated" as a first step into investigating repeated strikes Oct. 3 on a hospital in northern Kunduz that killed 12 staffers and 10 patients amid fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban rebels.

U.S. officials have called the strikes a mistake and President Barack Obama has apologized to MSF's international president. The U.S. has vowed to conduct an investigation, but says an international probe is not needed. Afghan authorities are also investigating.

The IHFFC could not be immediately reached for comment.