Afghanistan says 400 killed in Pakistani strike on Kabul hospital

Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of killing 400 people in an air strike on a hospital in Kabul that has fuelled fears of escalating conflict between the Asian neighbours.

Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, said the Pakistani military carried out the strike that destroyed “large sections” of the capital’s Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital, a 2,000-bed facility dedicated to treating drug addicts.

“Unfortunately, the death toll has so far reached 400, while around 250 others have been reported injured,” he wrote in a post on social media site X early on Tuesday.

The number of dead could not be independently verified, but Jacopo Caridi, Afghanistan country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said after visiting the site on Tuesday that the toll was almost certainly in the hundreds.

Caridi said the air strike “completely destroyed” several parts of the complex, including one area where dozens of patients had gathered for prayers when bombs began to fall about 9pm local time on Monday.

Mosharraf Zaidi, spokesperson for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied the Afghan claims of civilian casualties, describing them in a post on X as part of the “Taliban’s constant lies”. But he said Pakistan’s strikes against Afghanistan would continue until “the elimination of terrorists and their infrastructure”.

The Afghan Red Crescent posted videos on X of their rescue teams tending to the “martyred and wounded” on stretchers while rescue operations continued at the hospital.

The UN’s special rapporteur for Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said on social media that he was “dismayed” by fresh reports of “Pakistan air strikes” in Afghanistan resulting in civilian casualties. 

Zabihullah Mujahid, another spokesman for the Taliban government, condemned the hospital strike, adding that the Taliban considered “such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity”.

Islamabad’s information minister Attaullah Tarar said the Pakistani armed forces had “successfully carried out precision air strikes” targeting what he called “Afghan Taliban regime terrorism-sponsoring military installations”, including in Kabul.

Pakistan hit “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities”, Tarar said.

Afghan television channels showed a burning two-storey complex, with Taliban soldiers combing the rubble for survivors and bodies, and dozens of people lined up outside hospitals to identify missing loved ones.

“I have been searching for my brother, but I don’t know where he is and his exact location is unknown,” Khan Wazir told Afghanistan’s TOLOnews.

The attack may be one of the deadliest yet in a conflict that began last year after relations between Pakistan and the Taliban deteriorated. Islamabad is battling two increasingly violent insurgencies in border regions that it claims receive support from Kabul. The Taliban denies the allegations.

The most recent strikes come despite shuttle diplomacy by China, a security and economic partner of Pakistan that has grown close to the Taliban in recent months.

In calls with his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts last week, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing’s special envoy was travelling between Islamabad and Kabul to establish a ceasefire and begin “face-to-face exchanges”.

Multiple rounds of talks in Doha, Riyadh and Istanbul between Afghan and Pakistani officials since October have failed to secure peace. Pakistani officials have rejected further direct negotiations until the Taliban first commit to reining in militants.

The most recent round of attacks began in late February, when Pakistan launched a series of air strikes on border villages. It said the strikes targeted militants but the Taliban and UN say civilians were killed.

Before Monday night’s attack, the UN had said at least 75 civilians in Afghanistan had died in the Pakistani strikes.

Pakistan says it has killed more than 680 Afghan Taliban forces and allied militants. The Taliban have also launched drones and artillery against Pakistan, killing at least four civilians, according to Islamabad.