Taliban Officials Say 400 Killed at Drug Treatment Facility; Islamabad Denies Targeting Civilians.
A hospital in flames, hundreds feared dead — and two neighbors on the brink of open war.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government says at least 400 people were killed after what it described as a Pakistani airstrike on a hospital in Kabul, an allegation Islamabad has firmly denied.
Deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the death toll had reached “so far” 400, with about 250 injured. Most of the casualties, he said, were patients receiving treatment at the state-run Omid hospital, a facility dedicated to drug rehabilitation.
Pakistan rejected the accusation, calling it “false and misleading.” In a statement, Islamabad said it had targeted “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure,” including equipment and ammunition depots allegedly used by Afghan Taliban elements and Pakistan-based militants operating from Kabul.
The strike reportedly occurred around 9 p.m. Monday. Witnesses described scenes of devastation. Security guards and patients said the building was engulfed in flames after explosions rocked the compound.
“The whole place caught fire. It was like doomsday,” said Ahmad, a hospital security guard who survived the blast. Ambulance driver Haji Fahim told reporters that when he arrived, “everything was burning, people were burning.”
Sharafat Zaman, spokesperson for the Taliban’s health ministry, said roughly 3,000 patients were at the facility at the time. Rescue crews continued to search through rubble Tuesday as sections of the building lay collapsed.
Independent verification of casualty figures remains difficult.
The reported strike comes amid rapidly escalating tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Islamabad has described the situation as approaching “open war,” following weeks of cross-border clashes. Afghan officials said four people, including two children, were killed Monday in southeastern Afghanistan during border exchanges. Pakistan reported that a mortar fired from Afghanistan killed four family members in Bajaur district on Sunday.
The conflict marks the most serious deterioration in relations between the two neighbors in years. Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of harboring militants from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), responsible for a surge of deadly attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies supporting cross-border militancy.
International concern is mounting. Richard Bennett, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, expressed alarm over reports of civilian casualties and urged both sides to respect international law, including the protection of hospitals.
China has attempted mediation, dispatching a special envoy to ease tensions, but fighting has continued. More than 20,000 people have reportedly been displaced in recent weeks.
If confirmed, the scale of casualties in Kabul would mark one of the deadliest single incidents in the conflict — and further deepen a crisis between two nuclear-armed neighbors whose border has long been one of the region’s most volatile fault lines.
