KABUL: Rescue crews were still digging bodies out of the rubble of a drug rehabilitation hospital in the Afghan capital Tuesday morning, after officials there said an overnight Pakistani airstrike killed at least 400 people at the facility.
Pakistan has denied Afghanistan's accusation that it targeted a hospital, saying its strikes, which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, did not hit any civilian sites.
The strikes late Monday night mark a dramatic escalation of a conflict that began between Afghanistan and Pakistan late last month and has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan. International calls for a ceasefire have gone unheeded.
In a late-night post on X, Afghanistan's deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the airstrike had hit the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility in Kabul, at about 9 pm local time.
He said large sections of the facility had been destroyed, and that the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured. There was no updated official death toll early Tuesday morning.
Local television stations posted footage on X showing security forces using flashlights as they carried out casualties while firefighters struggled to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.
Cross-border fire
The strike came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbours in years entered a third week.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike on X, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors.” He said those killed were “innocent civilians and addicts.”
“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he said in a separate post on X.
UN calls on Afghanistan to combat militants
The strike came hours after the UN Security Council called on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to immediately step up efforts to combat terrorism.
Pakistan accuses Kabul of harbouring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously, didn't refer specifically to attacks carried out in Pakistan but condemned “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity including terrorist attacks.”
Pakistan's government accuses Afghanistan of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other militants who frequently target Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Kabul denies the charge.
The latest conflict
The fighting — the most severe between the two neighbours — began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said killed civilians.
The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Pakistan has declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.