KABUL - Afghanistan has accused Pakistan’s military of launching an air strike on a Kabul hospital that treats drug users, with a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health saying more than 200 people were killed.
Pakistan has dismissed the accusation, saying the attacks on Monday, which were also conducted in eastern Afghanistan, did not hit any civilian sites.
Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman gave the death toll during a television interview with local media, which was posted on X.
He said all parts of the hospital had been destroyed. Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also posted the video interview.
Local television stations posted footage showing firefighters struggling to extinguish flames among the ruins of a building.
The alleged attack came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides had exchanged fire along their common border, with four people killed in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbours in years entered a third week.
Mujahid had earlier condemned the strike on X, before the death toll had become apparent, saying it violated Afghanistan’s territory. He said most of those killed and wounded were patients undergoing treatment at the facility.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying that no hospital was targeted in Kabul.
In a post on X, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the strikes had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban” and Afghanistan-based Pakistani fighters in Kabul and Nangarhar. It added that the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians.
Pakistan’s targeting was “precise and carefully undertaken to ensure no collateral damage is inflicted”, the ministry said.
The ministry said Mujahid’s claim was “false and misleading”, and aimed at stirring sentiment and to cover what it described as “illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism”.
The comments came hours after the United Nations Security Council called on Afghanistan’s Taliban government to immediately step up efforts to combat terrorism. Pakistan accuses Kabul of harbouring armed groups, particularly the Pakistan Taliban, which it says carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously, didn’t name Pakistan but condemns “in the strongest terms all terrorist activity including terrorist attacks.” The resolution also extends the UN political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, for three months.
Pakistan’s government often accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing safe haven to the Pakistan Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, as well as to outlawed Baloch separatist groups and other groups who frequently target Pakistani security forces and civilians across the country. Kabul denies these claims.
Earlier, Afghan officials said four people, including two children, were killed, and 10 other people in southeastern Afghanistan were wounded, in Monday’s exchange of fire. Mortar shells fired from Pakistan overnight struck villages in the Khost province and destroyed several homes, said Mustaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesperson for the provincial governor.
On Sunday, Pakistan said a mortar fired from Afghanistan hit a house in the northwestern Bajaur district, killing four members of a family and wounding two others, including a five-year-old. Residents and officials said the military on Monday targeted Afghan positions along the border, where Sunday’s attack originated.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistan, which has repeatedly said that its military only targets Afghan posts and fighter hideouts.
Islamabad has described the situation as an “open war”. The cross-border clashes have included multiple Pakistani air strikes on Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Afghanistan’s Taliban administration crossed a “red line” by deploying drones that injured several civilians in Pakistan last week.
The fighting began in late February after Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan, which Kabul said killed civilians. The clashes disrupted a ceasefire brokered by Qatar in October after earlier fighting killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected rebels.
Pakistani Minister of Information Attaullah Tarar said on Sunday that the military has killed 684 Afghan Taliban forces, a claim rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, which says casualties are far lower.
Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry and other officials have said that Afghanistan has killed more than 100 Pakistani soldiers.
On Sunday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it had begun mobilising to provide “immediate lifesaving food” to more than 20,000 families that have been displaced in Afghanistan due to the conflict. I aje
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