Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman said early Tuesday the death toll from a Pakistani airstrike that hit a hospital treating drug users in Kabul has risen to 400, with 250 more reported injured.
Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X that Monday night’s strike destroyed large sections of the facility. He said rescue teams were trying to control the fire and recover bodies. Local television footage showed firefighters battling flames amid the building’s ruins.
Pakistan denied it had struck a hospital, saying its raids in Kabul and in eastern Afghanistan did not hit civilian sites. Its Ministry of Information said the strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and Pakistan-based militants in Kabul and Nangarhar. The ministry asserted the operations were aimed at facilities used to attack Pakistani civilians and were carried out to avoid collateral damage, calling Afghan claims “false and misleading.”
Afghanistan’s Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman, in a television interview shared on X, said all parts of the drug treatment hospital had been destroyed and gave an earlier toll of more than 200 dead. Government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid also posted the interview and condemned the strike as a violation of Afghan territory, saying patients accounted for most of the casualties. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, rejected the allegations as baseless.
The alleged attack followed hours after Afghan officials said cross-border exchanges along the frontier had killed four people in Afghanistan, as the heaviest fighting between the neighbors in years entered a third week. Mustaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesman for the Khost provincial governor, said mortar shells fired from Pakistan struck villages there and destroyed homes. Pakistan earlier said a mortar fired from Afghanistan struck a house in Bajaur district, killing four family members and wounding two others, including a five-year-old. Islamabad has repeatedly said its military only targets Afghan posts and militant hideouts.
The clashes have included multiple Pakistani airstrikes on Kabul. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured Pakistani civilians. Pakistan’s air force recently struck equipment storage and “technical support infrastructure” in Kandahar, which Pakistan said was being used in attacks inside Pakistan; Kabul said two sites were hit, including an empty security site and a drug rehabilitation center that sustained minor damage.
Afghanistan’s administrative Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi said defending sovereignty is the duty of all citizens and expressed regret over civilian casualties, calling the war an imposition on Afghanistan. The fighting began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes Kabul said had killed civilians, ending a Qatar-brokered ceasefire from October.
The UN Security Council on Monday called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to step up efforts to combat terrorism and unanimously adopted a resolution condemning “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity,” while extending the UN political mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for three months. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring Pakistani Taliban and other militants; Kabul denies providing safe haven.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar claimed its military had killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a figure rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, which says the Afghan toll is far lower. Afghan officials have said they killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
