KABUL — Afghanistan accused Pakistan of striking a Kabul hospital for people recovering from drug use late Monday, saying the airstrike killed at least 400 people and wounded about 250. The claim, made by Afghan officials, marked a sharp escalation in fighting that began late last month and has included repeated cross-border clashes and airstrikes inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan denied that the hospital was hit, saying its strikes in Kabul and eastern Afghanistan targeted militant infrastructure and did not strike civilian sites. Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said its operations “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure,” including storage sites for technical equipment and ammunition linked to the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan-based militants.
Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said on X that the strike struck a 2,000-bed facility at about 9 p.m. local time, destroying large sections of the hospital. Local television footage showed security forces carrying casualties by flashlight as firefighters worked to extinguish flames amid rubble. Fitrat said rescue teams were trying to control the blaze and recover bodies.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack on X, accusing Pakistan of targeting hospitals and other civilian sites and calling the strike a crime against humanity. He said those killed and wounded were patients at the facility.
Pakistan’s prime minister’s spokesman Mosharraf Zaidi dismissed the allegations as baseless, and the information ministry called the Afghan claim “false and misleading,” accusing Kabul of attempting to stir public sentiment and obscure what Islamabad describes as Afghanistan’s support for cross-border terrorism.
The reported strike came hours after Afghan officials said both sides had exchanged fire along the common border, killing four people in Afghanistan. The fighting, the deadliest between the neighbors in years, entered a third week and has disrupted a Qatar-brokered ceasefire from October.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to step up efforts against terrorism, unanimously condemning terrorist activity and extending the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for three months. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militants, including the Pakistani Taliban and banned Baloch separatist groups; Afghanistan denies those allegations.
The recent round of conflict began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan that Kabul said had killed civilians. Pakistan has said it is in “open war” with Afghanistan, language that has alarmed the international community amid ongoing activity by militant organizations such as al-Qaida and Islamic State in the region.
Pakistan’s information minister recently said the military had killed 684 Afghan Taliban fighters, a figure rejected by Afghan authorities, who say Pakistani losses have been much lower. Afghan officials have also claimed they killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured civilians in Pakistan last week. In response, Pakistan’s air force said it struck equipment storage sites and technical support infrastructure in southern Kandahar province; Kabul said Pakistan hit two locations, including an empty security site and a drug rehabilitation center that sustained minor damage.
In Kabul, administrative Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi said defending sovereignty is the duty of all citizens and expressed regret over civilian casualties from recent Pakistani attacks, saying the war had been imposed on Afghanistan. International calls for a ceasefire have so far gone unheeded as both sides continue to trade accusations and report conflicting casualty figures.