KABUL — Afghanistan accused Pakistan of carrying out an airstrike on a Kabul hospital for drug users late Monday that it says killed at least 400 people and injured about 250, marking a sharp escalation in a conflict that has seen repeated cross-border clashes and airstrikes inside Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said on X the strike struck the hospital at about 9 p.m., destroying large sections of the 2,000-bed facility. He said rescue teams were working to control fires and recover bodies. Local television posted footage showing security forces using flashlights to carry casualties and firefighters struggling amid the ruins.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike on X, saying Pakistan was “targeting hospitals and civilian sites” and calling the attack a crime against humanity. He said those killed and injured were patients at the hospital.
Pakistan dismissed the allegation that it had hit a hospital. Mosharraf Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, called the claim baseless. Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said its strikes — conducted in Kabul and eastern Nangarhar — “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment and ammunition storage” used by Afghanistan-based Pakistani militants, and were intended to avoid collateral damage. The ministry called Afghan claims “false and misleading.”
The incident came hours after the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbors in years entered a third week. The clashes began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes that Kabul said had killed civilians. The fighting has disrupted a Qatar-brokered ceasefire agreed in October.
The U.N. Security Council on Monday called on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to step up efforts to combat terrorism in a resolution adopted unanimously. The resolution condemned “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity” and extended the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months. Pakistan has repeatedly accused Kabul of harboring the Pakistani Taliban and other militants — accusations Afghanistan denies.
Both sides have traded casualty claims. Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military had killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a figure Kabul rejected. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry has claimed it 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 Pakistani civilians last week.
Pakistan said its air force also struck equipment storage sites and “technical support infrastructure” in southern Kandahar Province, which it said were being used for attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul said Pakistan hit two locations, including an empty security site and a drug rehabilitation center that sustained minor damage in the earlier strikes.
In Kabul, administrative Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi said defending sovereignty is the duty of citizens and expressed regret over civilian casualties, calling the war “imposed on Afghanistan.” International calls for a ceasefire have so far gone unheeded as tensions and retaliatory strikes continue.