Afghanistan blames Pakistan for a deadly strike on a hospital in Kabul that it says killed hundreds
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Afghanistan accused Pakistan of targeting a hospital for drug users in the Afghan capital on Monday night, saying an airstrike killed at least 400 people.
It marked a dramatic escalation in the conflict that began late last month and has seen renewed cross-border clashes and airstrikes inside Afghanistan. International calls for a ceasefire have been ignored.
Pakistan rejected the allegations that it hit the hospital, saying that its strikes, which were also carried out in eastern Afghanistan, did not hit any civilian areas.
The deputy spokesman of the government of Afghanistan, Hamdullah Fitrat, in the X channel, said that the airstrike attacked the hospital at about 9 pm, destroying large parts of the 2,000-bed facility. He said the number of dead “so far” has reached 400 people, while about 250 people have been reported injured.
Local television stations sent a video to X showing security forces using torches as they killed people while firefighters tried to put out the flames in the rubble of the building. Fitrat said rescue teams are working to control the fire and remove the bodies.
The alleged attack came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest war between the neighbors in years entered its third week.
Afghanistan’s government spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, condemned the X strike, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and public places to do horrible things.” In the post before the death toll rose to hundreds, he said the dead and injured 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 wrote.
The spokesperson of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as nonsense, saying that no hospital has been targeted in Kabul.
In a statement to X before Afghan officials released the death toll, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the strikes “directly targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of the Afghan Taliban” and Pakistani militants based in Afghanistan in Kabul and Nangarhar, saying the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians.
It said Pakistan’s intention was “specific and carefully crafted to ensure no harm is done.” The ministry said Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading” and aimed at inciting and mobilizing what it described as “illegal support for cross-border terrorism.”
The UN Security Council is calling on the Taliban to take action
The strike came hours after the UN Security Council urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately step up efforts to fight terrorism. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carries out attacks inside Pakistan.
The Security Council resolution, which was adopted unanimously, did not mention Pakistan but condemned “in the strongest terms all terrorism including terrorist attacks.” This decision also extends the political mission of the UN in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months.
The government of Pakistan often accuses the Afghan government of the Taliban for providing a safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, as well as Baloch opposition groups and other militants who often target Pakistani soldiers and civilians throughout the country. Kabul denies the charge.
The war – the worst between the two neighbors – began in late February after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians. The clashes undermined a ceasefire imposed by Qatar in October after a previous battle killed scores of soldiers, civilians and suspected terrorists.
Neighboring nations in ‘open war’
Pakistan has declared that it is in “open war” with Afghanistan. This conflict has alarmed the international community, especially since this area is one where some terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, still exist and have been trying to re-emerge.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the army had killed 684 Afghan Taliban fighters, a claim Afghanistan rejected, saying the casualties were too few. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense and other officials say Afghanistan has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
Pakistan’s defense minister has said his country has run out of ‘patience’ with Afghanistan, adding that there is now ‘open war’ between the two countries. Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan late Thursday, saying it was retaliating for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas on Sunday. Pakistan then launched airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, saying it targeted military installations.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said the Taliban commanders in Afghanistan had crossed a “red line” by sending drones that injured several civilians in Pakistan last week.
In response to the attack, Pakistan’s military over the weekend attacked warehouses and “technical support infrastructure” in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, which it said were being used for attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul said Pakistan hit two sites, including an empty security facility and a drug rehabilitation center that sustained minor damage.
In Kabul, Afghanistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi overnight said that protecting the sovereignty is the duty of all citizens. Speaking at a meeting with political analysts and the media, Hanafi expressed his regret for the casualties of civilians in the recent attack on Pakistan, saying that the war has been imposed on Afghanistan.
