Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of deadly strike on Kabul hospital | Afghanistan
Heavy casualties were feared in Kabul after a hospital treating drug users was hit in airstrikes that Afghanistan blamed on the Pakistani army.
Pakistan denied the accusation, saying Monday’s attacks in eastern Afghanistan did not hit any civilian areas.
Ministry of Health Spokesperson Sharafat Zaman told local media in a television interview broadcast on channel X that the initial death toll was 200. He said that all sections of the drug treatment hospital were destroyed.
Deputy Afghan government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat later said the death toll had reached 400 people “so far”, with around 250 people reported injured.
Local television channels broadcast footage of firefighters trying to extinguish the flames among the ruins of a building.
AFP reporters in the area counted at least 30 bodies as medical teams worked to help the injured, who were taken to various hospitals for treatment, according to a source working on the rescue operation.
The alleged attack came just hours after Afghan officials said the two sides had exchanged gunfire along their shared border, killing four people in Afghanistan as the neighbors entered the third week of the deadliest conflict in years.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had previously condemned the attack on X before the death toll was known and said that the attack violated Afghan territory. He said most of those killed and injured were patients receiving treatment at the facility.
A spokesman for Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif described the allegations as unfounded, saying no hospitals in Kabul were targeted.
Pakistan’s information ministry, in a post on
He said the targeting of Pakistan “was carried out in a precise and careful manner to ensure that no collateral damage occurred.” The ministry said Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading” and was intended to raise awareness and cover up what it described as “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism”.
Dejan Panic, Afghan director of the Italian non-governmental organization Emergency, said they recovered three bodies and treated 27 injured following the attack on Monday night.
Eyewitnesses reported that the hospital building suffered serious damage after the attack and some sections collapsed. While firefighters had difficulty controlling the flames, rescue teams searched for survivors under the rubble. Rescue efforts were complicated overnight by limited visibility.
Yousaf Rahim said, “We were in the wards when the explosion happened.” “My bed was in the corner and I was injured in my leg and hip. It was a terrible sight. Patients were falling out of their beds, screaming and running as fire and smoke filled the wards and rooms.”
“Dense smoke and dust spread throughout the hospital,” he added. “Many people were lying on the ground. Dozens died instantly, and the seriously injured were begging for help. I didn’t know what to do. I jumped over the bodies and managed to escape outside.”
Fereshta Abbasi, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said the organization is very powerful. anxious He informed about reports of mass casualties and called on the authorities to immediately investigate the incident. “Civilian facilities should never be targeted or put at disproportionate risk of attack,” he said.
This came hours after the UN security council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to immediately step up counter-terrorism efforts. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militant groups, especially the Pakistani Taliban, which it says carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The unanimously adopted Security Council resolution does not include Pakistan’s name, but condemns “all terrorist activities, including terrorist attacks, in the strongest terms.” The decision also extends the mandate of the UN’s political mission in Afghanistan, Unama, by three months.
The Pakistani government frequently accuses the Afghan Taliban government of providing safe haven to the Pakistani Taliban, designated a terrorist organization by the United States, as well as outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other militants who frequently target Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Cain denies the accusation.
Earlier, Afghan authorities had announced that four people, including two children, were killed and 10 people were injured in Monday’s clashes in southeastern Afghanistan. Mustaghfar Gurbaz, spokesman for the provincial governor, said that mortars fired from Pakistan overnight hit villages in Khost province and destroyed many houses.
Pakistan said on Sunday that a mortar launched from Afghanistan hit a house in northwestern Bajaur province, killing four members of a family and wounding two others, including a five-year-old child. On Monday, the military targeted Afghan positions along the border where Sunday’s offensive began, residents and officials said.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, which has repeatedly said its army only targets Afghan positions and militant hideouts.
Islamabad described the situation as “open war”. Cross-border conflicts include multiple Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
The fighting 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 dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants were killed in earlier clashes.
Haroon Janjua contributed additional reporting
