At least 400 people died and 250 were injured in a Pakistani air strike against a rehabilitation hospital for drug users in the city of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday (17).
Pakistan rejected the allegation as false and misleading and said it “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” on Monday night.
At the scene, a burned single-story structure showed traces of flames. Elsewhere, buildings were reduced to heaps of wood and metal, with only a few bunk beds still intact in some, while blankets, personal belongings and bedding were scattered throughout.
“When I arrived (last night), I saw that everything was on fire, people were being burned,” ambulance driver Haji Fahim told Reuters. “Early in the morning, they called me again and told me to come back because there were still bodies under the rubble.”
Ambulances and police vehicles were parked near the gate of the , which a sign identified as a 1,000-bed “drug treatment hospital,” while security guards kept watch.
The airstrike came hours after China said it remained ready to continue efforts to ease tensions between the Islamic nations of South Asia and called on both countries to avoid and return to China. The conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which began last month, is the most serious between the countries that share a 2,600 km border.
The escalation comes amid widespread instability in the region, where joint US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation have plunged the Middle East into crisis.
Pakistan says there was no collateral damage
Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Taliban, said the airstrike took place at 9pm on Monday and targeted Omid hospital, which he said was a 2,000-bed drug rehabilitation center.
“Large parts of the hospital have been destroyed and there are fears of a high number of casualties,” he said in a post on X. “Sadly, the death toll has now reached 400, with up to 250 injured.” Rescue teams were at the scene working to control the fire and rescue victims, he added.
Reuters was unable to verify the number of casualties and the Pakistani military could not be reached for comment outside business hours.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stated that the Afghan Taliban’s claim was a “distortion of facts”.
In a post published overnight on
“Pakistan’s targets are precise and carefully defined to ensure no collateral damage is caused,” the post said. “This misrepresentation of the facts, presenting it as a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, seeks to inflame tempers, covering up illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism.”
