Some 2,000 people were reportedly being treated at the drug treatment hospital, and officials believe there could be hundreds of casualties.
Hundreds of people were reportedly killed or injured at a drug treatment centre in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, after an airstrike that the Taliban government blamed on Pakistan. The new attack, which, according to the Taliban, killed 400 people, is the deadliest in Afghanistan’s history after the suicide bombing at Kabul airport during the US withdrawal in 2021, when at least 169 Afghan civilians and 13 US service members died.
The new airstrikes marked a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began late last month and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan. So far, all international calls for a ceasefire have gone unheeded.
Pakistan’s information ministry has denied targeting the hospital on Monday, saying it had struck military installations and what it called “terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul and the eastern Afghan province of Nangahar.
Afghanistan’s Claim
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, in a post on X, said the airstrike had hit the hospital at about 9 pm local time, destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility. He said the deaths had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured.
Some 2,000 people were being treated at the drug treatment hospital, the BBC reported, quoting a hospital official, who believes there could be hundreds of casualties.
Fitrat said rescue teams were working to control the fire and recover the bodies. Local television stations also posted videos on X showing security forces using flashlights as they carried out casualties while firefighters struggled to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.
Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid condemned the strike. In a post on X, he accused Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors”. He also said that those killed and injured in the attack were patients at the hospital.
“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he posted.
Pakistan’s Reaction
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed Kabul’s allegations as baseless, saying no hospital was targeted in Kabul.
In a post on X before Afghan officials disclosed the number of deaths, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants in Kabul and Nangarhar, saying the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians.
It said Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted”.
The ministry said Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading” and aimed at stirring sentiment and covering what it described as “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism”.
Attack On Kabul
The latest strike came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan.
The ongoing conflict between the two South Asian neighbours re-erupted last month after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistan’s government accuses Afghanistan of providing a haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other militants who frequently target Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Kabul denies the charge.
Pakistan has, however, declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan. On Sunday, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military has killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a claim rejected by Afghanistan, which says casualties are far lower. Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry and other officials have said Afghanistan has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
