KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan accused Pakistan of striking a Kabul hospital for drug users late Monday, saying the airstrike killed at least 400 people and injured about 250. The Afghan claim marked a sharp escalation in a conflict that began late last month and has included repeated cross-border clashes and airstrikes inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan denied the hospital was hit, saying its strikes in Kabul and eastern Afghanistan targeted militant infrastructure and did not hit civilian sites. Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said its strikes “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and facilities used by Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X that the strike hit the 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 while firefighters tried to extinguish flames amid the ruins. Fitrat said rescue teams were working to control the blaze and recover bodies.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack on X, accusing Pakistan of “targeting hospitals and civilian sites to perpetrate horrors” and calling the strike a crime against humanity. He said those killed and wounded were patients at the hospital.
Pakistan’s prime minister’s spokesman Mosharraf Zaidi dismissed the allegations as baseless. Pakistan’s information ministry called Mujahid’s claim “false and misleading,” saying it was meant to stir sentiment and obscure what it described as Afghanistan’s support for cross-border terrorism.
The strike came hours after Afghan officials said both sides exchanged fire along the common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbors in years entered a third week. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to step up efforts to combat terrorism. A unanimously adopted resolution condemned “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity” and extended the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harboring militants, including the Pakistani Taliban and outlawed Baloch separatist groups, allegations Kabul denies.
The current fighting 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; the conflict has alarmed the international community because militant organizations including al-Qaida and Islamic State still operate in the region.
Pakistan’s information minister on Sunday said the military had killed 684 Afghan Taliban fighters, a figure rejected by Afghanistan, which says the Pakistani casualty toll is much lower. Afghan officials have claimed they killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured civilians in Pakistan last week. In response, Pakistan’s air force over the weekend 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 in recent Pakistani attacks, saying the war had been imposed on Afghanistan. International calls for a ceasefire have so far gone unheeded.