At least 400 people have been killed and around 250 injured in a Pakistani airstrike at a hospital in Afghanistan capital Kabul, a Taliban spokesperson said early Tuesday.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the airstrike hit the drug rehabilitation hospital at about 9 pm local time, destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility.
Pakistan denied the Afghan government’s allegations and called them “baseless”, saying that no hospital was targeted in Kabul.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors”.
“The Pakistani military regime has once again violated Afghanistan’s airspace and targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, resulting in the death and injury of addicts who were undergoing treatment,” he posted on X.
“We strongly condemn this crime and consider such an act to be against all accepted principles and a crime against humanity,” he further said.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that the Pakistani military had “carried out precision airstrikes” targeting military installations in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar.
He said “technical support infrastructure and ammunition storage facilities” at two locations in Kabul were destroyed.
The alleged attack 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.
According to reports, Pakistan’s military recently struck an addiction treatment centre in Kabul’s 9th police district, causing heavy casualties.