Afghanistan has said a Pakistani airstrike late on Monday on a hospital in Kabul killed and injured hundreds of people.
Pakistan denied the accusation and claimed its forces “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul and the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, including equipment and ammunition storage allegedly used by insurgents that Islamabad says are responsible for attacks on its soil.
Hamdullah Fitrat, a spokesperson for the Taliban, said the strike on the Omid drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul occurred at around 9pm local time. “Large parts of the hospital have been destroyed, and there are fears of heavy casualties,” he said in a post on X. “Sadly, the number of those killed has so far reached 400, with up to 250 others injured.”
He said rescue teams rushed to the scene to control the fires and search for victims under the debris.
In a statement posted overnight on X, Pakistan’s information and broadcasting ministry said the operation focused on locations linked to armed groups.
“Pakistan’s targeting is precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted,” the statement said. “This misreporting of facts as a drug rehabilitation facility seeks to stir sentiments, covering illegitimate support to cross-border terrorism.”
Sharafat Zaman Amarkhail, spokesperson for Afghanistan’s health ministry, told the BBC there were no military facilities near the hospital.
Residents across Kabul said they heard loud explosions shortly before 9pm, followed by the sound of aircraft and air defence systems.
According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, at least 75 people have been killed and 193 injured in cross-border violence between the two countries since 26 February.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, said that he was “dismayed” by fresh reports of Pakistani airstrikes and resulting civilian deaths.
“My condolences. I urge parties to de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint and respect international law, including the protection of civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals,” he said in a post on X.
A 50-year-old man named Ahmad told Reuters that the air strike killed his roommates and friends as a fire tore through the building. “The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday,” he said.
Mohammad Mian, who works in the radiology department of the hospital, said that very few survived the strike. “It was extremely terrifying,” he said. “Those who survived were the ones whose rooms were not destroyed and were fortunate. But the places where the bombs were dropped, everyone there was killed.”
Images and videos from the site of the attack showed huge flames, charred walls, collapsed structures, and debris scattered all over. Those who visited the site saw patients’ belongings scattered.
Meanwhile, Dr Ahmad Wali Yousafzai, a health officer at the hospital, said around 2,000 patients were inside when the strike hit. He described hearing three explosions, the force of which threw some of his colleagues across the room from one wall to another. He said he heard screams “from all directions”.
Pakistan says Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities are sheltering militant groups, especially the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has carried out attacks inside Pakistan.
It says it has repeatedly urged Kabul to rein in armed groups operating from Afghan soil, but that the Taliban authorities have failed to “undertake any substantive action”.
Kabul rejects the allegation, insisting it does not allow its territory to be used to target other countries.
Late last month, Pakistan announced an “open war” with the Taliban after carrying out air strikes on major Afghan cities, including Kabul. The air and ground strikes targeted Taliban military posts, headquarters and ammunition depots in multiple sectors along the border, just hours after the Taliban launched an air attack on Pakistan’s border forces.
The attacks were a sharp escalation following months of tensions between the two sides, and this upended the ceasefire deal brokered in Qatar last year.
Both countries say they are responding to provocations by the other.
“Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you [Afghanistan],” Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said at the time.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari said that Afghanistan’s government had “crossed a red line” by carrying out drone attacks on civilian areas in Pakistan. Hours later, Pakistan reportedly launched strikes on what it said was an Afghan drone storage facility.
*independent*
