KABUL, March 17 (Reuters) – More than 400 people were killed and 250 injured in a Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, in a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbors.
Pakistan rejected the claim as false and misleading and said it ‘precisely targeted military installations and infrastructure supporting terrorism’ on Monday night.
“Secondary detonations visible after the attacks clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition dumps,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X.
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The airstrike came hours after China said it remained willing to pursue efforts to ease tensions between South Asian Islamic nations and called on both to avoid expanding the war and return to the negotiating table.
The conflict that began last month is the worst ever between the neighbors who share a 2,600km border. The conflict had ebbed amid attempts by friendly countries, including China, to mediate and end the fighting, before escalating again, this time just days before the Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The escalation comes amid broader instability in the neighborhood, where US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation have plunged the Middle East into crisis.
FINAL JUDGMENT
At the scene, a blackened one-story structure bore the marks of flames. Elsewhere, buildings were reduced to heaps of wood and metal, with only a few bunk beds still intact in some of them, while blankets, personal belongings and bedding were scattered.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qanie said 408 people were killed and 265 were injured. Afghan authorities said the dead and injured were taken to hospitals on the outskirts of Kabul, but did not provide details on how many bodies were recovered and how casualties were counted.
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According to residents, the hospital operated in a place where there had previously been a military base.
Witnesses said they heard three bombs explode just as people in the hospital were finishing evening prayers and that two of them hit patient rooms and areas.
‘The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday’, declared Ahmad, 50 years old, saying he was undergoing treatment at the institution and only gave his first name. ‘My friends were burning in the fire and we couldn’t save them all.’
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