Families and friends are still searching for loved ones who were at a drug addiction treatment center in the Afghan capital of Kabul that was destroyed by an airstrike two days ago. The Afghan government says Pakistan is responsible for the incident, which it says has left 400 dead. He denies the accusations, reports TASR based on the Reuters agency.
- An airstrike destroyed an addiction treatment center in Kabul.
- The Taliban claim that more than four hundred people were killed and hundreds injured in the attack.
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement said an airstrike on Monday during evening prayers killed more than 400 people and wounded 265 others.
Hundreds of victims of the attack
The humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that hundreds of people were killed in the attack. The director of the Afghan branch of the NRC, Jacopo Caridi, said that the organization is helping with the rescue work. According to him, at least one of the center’s buildings was completely destroyed. The exact number of victims still remains unknown.
On Wednesday, relatives of people in the center tried to find their loved ones. Many said they did not know whether they were alive or not, or whether the authorities had moved them to another location.
Conditions on site
A Reuters witness saw smoke still rising from some parts of the compound and firefighters were still putting out smaller fires about 36 hours after the attack. Pieces of furniture, mattresses and clothes were scattered among the debris.
Afghanistan’s interior ministry said funerals for some of the victims would take place later on Wednesday. “Some of the bodies could not be identified and are currently in the Forensic Medicine Department. A few bodies were left intact and we handed them over to their families… Others were completely destroyed,” confirmed a spokesman for the department.
Reactions to allegations
Pakistan rejected Kabul’s accusations, saying it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist infrastructure”.
The European Union, UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations have said that civilian and medical facilities should not be targeted and called for an immediate calm.
Armed clashes between Kabul and Islamabad escalated last October and led to the almost complete closure of the shared border. Pakistan subsequently declared “open war” on the Taliban and bombed the Afghan capital, Kabul, on February 27. Since then, armed skirmishes in the border areas have intensified.
